What to Do with Your Mouth to Sound American
American Intonation Do's and Don'ts
What Exactly Is Staircase Intonation?
Three Ways to Make Intonation
Exercise 1-1: Rubber Band Practice with Nonsense Syllables

Intonation
Liaisons
Word Endings
Pronunciation
The Spanish S = The American S, But...
The Spanish R = The American T
The -ed Ending
The Final T
The Spanish D = The American Th (voiced)
The Spanish of Spain Z or C = The American Th (unvoiced)
The Spanish I = The American Y (not j)
The Doubled Spanish A Sound = The American O, All or AW Spelling
The Spanish O = The American OU

Welcome to American Accent Training. This book and CD set is designed to get you started on your
American accent. We'll follow the book and go through the 13 lessons and all the exercises step by
step. Everything is explained and a complete Answer Key may be found in the back of the text.

What Is Accent?
Accent is a combination of three main components: intonation (speech music), liaisons (word
connections), and pronunciation (the spoken sounds of vowels, consonants, and combinations). As
you go along, you'll notice that you're being asked to look at accent in a different way. You'll also
realize that the grammar you studied before and this accent you're studying now are completely
different.
Part of the difference is that grammar and vocabulary are systematic and structured— the letter of
the language. Accent, on the other hand, is free form, intuitive, and creative— more the spirit of the
language. So, thinking of music, feeling, and flow, let your mouth relax into the American accent.

Can I Learn a New Accent?
Can a person actually learn a new accent? Many people feel that after a certain age, it's just not

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possible. Can classical musicians play jazz? If they practice, of course they can! For your American
accent, it's just a matter of learning and practicing techniques this book and CD set will teach you. It
is up to you to use them or not. How well you do depends mainly on how open and willing you are
to sounding different from the way you have sounded all your life.
A very important thing you need to remember is that you can use your accent to say what you mean
and how you mean it. Word stress conveys meaning through tone or feeling, which can be much
more important than the actual words that you use. We'll cover the expression of these feelings
through intonation in the first lesson.
You may have noticed that I talk fast and often run my words together. You've probably heard
enough "English-teacher English"—where ... everything ... is ... pronounced without having to listen
too carefully. That's why on the CDs we're going to talk just like the native speakers that we are, in a
normal conversational tone.
Native speakers may often tell people who are learning English to "slow down" and to "speak
clearly." This is meant with the best of intentions, but it is exactly the opposite of what a student
really needs to do. If you speak fairly quickly and with strong intonation, you will be understood
more easily. To illustrate this point, you will hear a Vietnamese student first trying to speak slowly
and carefully and then repeating the same words quickly and with strong intonation. Studying, this
exercise took her only about two minutes to practice, but the difference makes her sound as if she
had been in America for many years.
V Please listen. You will hear the same words twice. Hello, my name is Muoi. I'm taking American
Accent Training.
iv

You may have to listen to this CD a couple of times to catch everything. To help you, every word on
the CD is also written in the book. By seeing and hearing simultaneously, you'll learn to reconcile
the differences between the appearance of English (spelling) and the sound of English
(pronunciation and the other aspects of accent).
The CD leaves a rather short pause for you to repeat into. The point of this is to get you responding
quickly and without spending too much time thinking about your response.

Accent versus Pronunciation
Many people equate accent with pronunciation. I don't feel this to be true at all. America is a big
country, and while the pronunciation varies from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the southern
to the northern states, two components that are uniquely American stay basically the same—the
speech music, or intonation, and the word connections or liaisons. Throughout this program, we will
focus on them. In the latter part of the book we will work on pronunciation concepts, such as Cat?
Caught? Cut? and Betty Bought a Bit of Better Butter; we also will work our way through some of
the difficult sounds, such as TH, the American R, the L, V, and Z.

"Which Accent Is Correct?"
American Accent Training was created to help people "sound American" for lectures, interviews,
teaching, business situations, and general daily communication. Although America has many
regional pronunciation differences, the accent you will learn is that of standard American English as
spoken and understood by the majority of educated native speakers in the United States. Don't worry
that you will sound slangy or too casual because you most definitely won't. This is the way a
professor lectures to a class, the way a national newscaster broadcasts, the way that is most
comfortable and familiar to the majority of native speakers.

"Why Is My Accent So Bad?"
Learners can be seriously hampered by a negative outlook, so I'll address this very important point
early. First, your accent is not bad; it is nonstandard to the American ear. There is a joke that goes:
What do you call a person who can speak three languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person
who can speak two languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who can only speak one
language? American.
Every language is equally valid or good, so every accent is good. The average American, however,

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truly does have a hard time understanding a nonstandard accent. George Bernard Shaw said that the
English and Americans are two people divided by the same language!
Some students learn to overpronounce English because they naturally want to say the word as it is
written. Too often an English teacher may allow this, perhaps thinking that colloquial American
English is unsophisticated, unrefined, or even incorrect. Not so at all! Just as you don't say the T in
listen, the TT in better is pronounced D, bedder. Any other pronunciation will sound foreign,
strange, wrong, or different to a native speaker.
v

Less Than It Appears ... More Than It Appears
As you will see in Exercise 1-21, Squeezed-Out Syllables, on page 18, some words appear to
have three or more syllables, but all of them are not actually spoken. For example, business is
not (bi/zi/ness), but rather (birz/ness).
Just when you get used to eliminating whole syllables from words, you're going to come across
other words that look as if they have only one syllable, but really need to be said with as many as
three! In addition, the inserted syllables are filled with letters that are not in the written word. I'll
give you two examples of this strange phenomenon. Pool looks like a nice, one-syllable word,
but if you say it this way, at best, it will sound like pull, and at worst will be unintelligible to
your listener. For clear comprehension, you need to say three syllables (pu/wuh/luh). Where did
that W come from? It's certainly not written down anywhere, but it is there just as definitely as
the P is there. The second example is a word like feel. If you say just the letters that you see, it
will sound more like fill. You need to say (fee/yuh/luh). Is that really a Y? Yes. These
mysterious semivowels are explained under Liaisons in Chapter 2. They can appear either inside
a word as you have seen, or between words as you will learn.

Language Is Fluent and Fluid
Just like your own language, conversational English has a very smooth, fluid sound. Imagine that
you are walking along a dry riverbed with your eyes closed. Every time you come to a rock, you
trip over it, stop, continue, and trip over the next rock. This is how the average foreigner speaks
English. It is slow, awkward, and even painful. Now imagine that you are a great river rushing
through that same riverbed—rocks are no problem, are they? You just slide over and around
them without ever breaking your smooth flow. It is this feeling that I want you to capture in
English.
Changing your old speech habits is very similar to changing from a stick shift to an automatic
transmission. Yes, you continue to reach for the gearshift for a while and your foot still tries to
find the clutch pedal, but this soon phases itself out. In the same way, you may still say
"telephone call" (kohl) instead of (kahl) for a while, but this too will soon pass.
You will also have to think about your speech more than you do now. In the same way that you
were very aware and self-conscious when you first learned to drive, you will eventually relax
and deal with the various components simultaneously.
A new accent is an adventure. Be bold! Exaggerate wildly! You may worry that Americans will
laugh at you for putting on an accent, but I guarantee you, they won't even notice. They'll just
think that you've finally learned to "talk right." Good luck with your new accent!
vi

A Few Words On Pronunciation
Track 2

CD 1

I'd like to introduce you to the pronunciation guide outlines in the following chart. There aren't
too many characters that are different from the standard alphabet, but just so you'll be familiar
with them, look at the chart. It shows eight tense vowels and six lax vowels and semivowels.

Tense Vowels? Lax Vowels?

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In some books, tense vowels are called long and lax vowels are called short. Since you will be
learning how to lengthen vowels when they come before a voiced consonant, it would be
confusing to say that hen has a long, short vowel. It is more descriptive to say that it has a lax
vowel that is doubled or lengthened.

Tense Vowels

Lax Vowels

Symbol Sound Spelling Example

Symbol

Sound

Spelling

Example

ā

εi

take

[tak]

ε

eh

get

[gεt]

ē

ee

eat

[et]

i

ih

it

[it]

ī

äi

ice

[is]

ü

ih + uh

took

[tük]

ō

ou

hope

[hop]

ə

uh

some

[səm]

ū

ooh

smooth

[smuth]

ä
æ

ah
ä+ε

caught
cat

[kät]
[kæt]

ər

er

her

[hər]

æo

æ+o

down

[dæon]

əl

ul

dull

[dəəl]

Semivowels

Although this may look like a lot of characters to learn, there are really only four new ones: æ,
ä, ə, and ü. Under Tense Vowels, you'll notice that the vowels that say their own name simply
have a line over them: [ā], [ē], [ī], [ō], [ū]. There are three other tense vowels. First, [ä], is
pronounced like the sound you make when the doctor wants to see your throat, or when you
loosen a tight belt and sit down in a soft chair—aaaaaaaah! Next, you'll find [æ], a combination
of the tense vowel [ä] and the lax vowel [ ]. It is similar to the noise that a goat or a lamb makes.
The last one is [æo], a combination of [æ] and [o]. This is a very common sound, usually
written as ow or ou in words like down or round.
A tense vowel requires you to use a lot of facial muscles to produce it. If you say [ē], you must
stretch your lips back; for [ū] you must round your lips forward; for [ä] you drop your jaw down;
for [æ] you will drop your jaw far down and back; for [ā] bring your lips back and drop your jaw
a bit; for [ī] drop your jaw for the ah part of the sound and pull it back up for the ee part; and for
[ō] round the lips, drop the jaw and pull back up into [ū]. An American [ō] is really [ōū].
V Now you try it. Repeat after me. [ē], [ū], [ā], [æ], [ä], [ī], [ō].
ε

vii

A lax vowel, on the other hand, is very reduced. In fact, you don't need to move your face at all.
You only need to move the back of your tongue and your throat. These sounds are very different
from most other languages.
Under Lax Vowels, there are four reduced vowel sounds, starting with the Greek letter epsilon
[ε], pronounced eh; [i] pronounced ih, and [ü] pronounced ü, which is a combination of ih and
uh, and the schwa, [ə], pronounced uh—the softest, most reduced, most relaxed sound that we
can produce. It is also the most common sound in English. The semivowels are the American R
(pronounced er, which is the schwa plus R) and the American L (which is the schwa plus L).
Vowels will be covered in greater detail in Chapters 3, 8, and 11.

Voiced Consonants? Unvoiced Consonants?
A consonant is a sound that causes two points of your mouth to come into contact, in three
locations—the lips, the tip of the tongue, and the throat. A consonant can either be unvoiced
(whispered) or voiced (spoken), and it can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a word.
You'll notice that for some categories, a particular sound doesn't exist in English.

Initial
Unvoiced

Voiced

Medial
Unvoiced

Final
Voiced

Unvoiced

Voiced

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parry
ferry

bury
very

apple
afraid

able
avoid

mop
off

mob
of

stew

zoo

races

raises

face

phase

pressure

pleasure

crush

garage

sheet
two

do

petal

pedal

not

nod

choke

joke

gaucho

gouger

rich

ridge

think

that

ether

either

tooth

smooth

come

gum

bicker
accent

bigger
exit
player
shower

pick
tax

pig
tags
day
now

yes
wool
his

ahead
late

collect

towel

rate

correct

tower

me

swimmer

same

next

connect

man

finger

ring

viii

Pronunciation Points
1. In many dictionaries, you may find a character that looks like an upside down V, [A] and
another character that is an upside-down e [ə], the schwa. There is a linguistic distinction
between the two, but they are pronounced exactly the same. Since you can't hear the difference
between these two sounds, we'll just be using the upside-down e to indicate the schwa sound. It
is pronounced uh.
2. The second point is that we do not differentiate between [ä] and []]. The [ä] is pronounced
ah. The backwards C []] is more or less pronounced aw. This aw sound has a "back East"
sound to it, and as it's not common to the entire United States, it won't be included here.
3. R can be considered a semivowel. One characteristic of a vowel is that nothing in the mouth
touches anything else. R definitely falls into that category. So in the exercises throughout the
book it will be treated not so much as a consonant, but as a vowel.
4. The ow sound is usually indicated by [äu], which would be ah + ooh. This may have been
accurate at some point in some locations, but the sound is now generally [æo]. Town is [tæon],
how is [hæo], loud is [læod], and so on.
5. Besides voiced and unvoiced, there are two words that come up in pronunciation. These are
sibilant and plosive. When you say the [s] sound, you can feel the air sliding out over the tip of
your tongue—this is a sibilant. When you say the [p] sound, you can feel the air popping out
from between your lips—this is a plosive. Be aware that there are two sounds that are sometimes
mistakenly taught as sibilants, but are actually plosives: [th] and [v].
6. For particular points of pronunciation that pertain to your own language, refer to the
Nationality Guides on page 172.
Throughout this text, we will be using three symbols to indicate three separate actions:
V

Indicates a command or a suggestion.

+

Indicates the beep tone.
Indicates that you need to turn the CD on or off, back up, or pause.

+

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ix

Telephone Tutoring
Preliminary Diagnostic Analysis

CD 1 Track 3

This is a speech analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your American accent. If
you are studying American Accent Training on your own, please contact toll-free (800) 4574255 or www.americanaccent.com for a referral to a qualified telephone analyst. The
diagnostic analysis is designed to evaluate your current speech patterns to let you know where
your accent is standard and nonstandard.
Hello, my name is______. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to learn,
but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation
pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time.
1. all, long, caught 5. ice, I'll, sky
9. come, front, indicate 13. out,
house,
round
2. cat, matter, laugh 6. it, milk, sin
10. smooth, too, shoe
14. boy, oil, toy
3. take, say, fail
7. eat, me, seen
11. took, full, would
4. get, egg, any
8. work, girl, bird 12. told, so, roll
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

What to Do with Your Mouth to Sound American
One of the main differences between the way an American talks and the way the rest of the world
talks is that we don't really move our lips. (So, when an American says, "Read my lips!" what does
he really mean?) We create most of our sounds in the throat, using our tongue very actively. If you
hold your fingers over your lips or clench your jaws when you practice speaking American English,
you will find yourself much closer to native-sounding speech than if you try to pronounce every ...
single ... sound ... very ... carefully.
If you can relate American English to music, remember that the indigenous music is jazz. Listen to
their speech music, and you will hear that Americans have a melodic, jazzy way of producing
sounds. Imagine the sound of a cello when you say, Beddy bada bida beader budder (Betty bought a
bit of better butter) and you'll be close to the native way of saying it.
Because most Americans came from somewhere else, American English reflects the accent
contributions of many lands. The speech music has become much more exaggerated than British
English, developing a strong and distinctive intonation. If you use this intonation, not only will you
be easier to understand, but you will sound much more confident, dynamic, and persuasive.
Intonation, or speech music, is the sound that you hear when a conversation is too far away to be
clearly audible but close enough for you to tell the nationality of the speakers. The American
intonation dictates liaisons and pronunciation, and it indicates mood and meaning. Without
intonation, your speech would be flat, mechanical, and very confusing for your listener. What is the
American intonation pattern? How is it different from other languages? Foa egzampuru, eefu you
hea ah Jahpahneezu pahsohn speakingu Ingurishu, the sound would be very choppy, mechanical,
and unemotional to an American. Za sem vey vis Cheuman pipples, it sounds too stiff. A mahn frohm
Paree ohn zee ahzer ahnd, eez intonashon goes up at zee end ov evree sentence, and has such a
strong intonation that he sounds romantic and highly emotional, but this may not be appropriate for a
lecture or a business meeting in English.
1

+ Do not speak word by word.
If you speak word by word, as many people who learned "printed" English do, you'll end up
sounding mechanical and foreign. You may have noticed the same thing happens in your own
language: When someone reads a speech, even a native speaker, it sounds stiff and stilted, quite
different from a normal conversational tone.
+ Connect words to form sound groups.
This is where you're going to start doing something completely different than what you have
done in your previous English studies. This part is the most difficult for many people because it
goes against everything they've been taught. Instead of thinking of each word as a unit, think of
sound units. These sound units may or may not correspond to a word written on a page. Native
speakers don't say Bob is on the phone, but say [bäbizän the foun]. Sound units make a sentence
flow smoothly, like peanut butter— never really ending and never really starting, just flowing
along. Even chunky peanut butter is acceptable. So long as you don't try to put plain peanuts
directly onto your bread, you'll be OK.
2

+ Use staircase intonation.
Let those sound groups floating on the wavy river in the figure flow downhill and you'll get the
staircase. Staircase intonation not only gives you that American sound, it also makes you sound
much more confident. Not every American uses the downward staircase. A certain segment of
the population uses rising staircases—generally, teenagers on their way to a shopping mall: "Hi,
my name is Tiffany. I live in La Canada. I'm on the pep squad."

What Exactly Is Staircase Intonation?
In saying your words, imagine that they come out as if they were bounding lightly down a flight
of stairs. Every so often, one jumps up to another level, and then starts down again. Americans
tend to stretch out their sounds longer than you may think is natural. So to lengthen your vowel
sounds, put them on two stairsteps instead of just one.
We're here. I
We
///////// 're
///////// ///////// he
///////// ///////// ///////// re.
///////// ///////// ///////// /////////

The sound of an American speaking a foreign language is very distinctive, because we double
sounds that should be single. For example, in Japanese or Spanish, the word no is, to our ear,
clipped or abbreviated.
No
/////////

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Clipped

No
/////////
ou
///////// /////////
Standard American

When you have a word ending in an unvoiced consonant—one that you "whisper" (t, k, s, x, f,
sh)—you will notice that the preceding vowel is said quite quickly, and on a single stairstep.
When a word ends in a vowel or a voiced consonant—one that you "say" (b, d, g, z, v, zh, j), the
preceding vowel is said more slowly, and on a double stairstep.
seat
////////////
Unvoiced

see

/////////
eed
///////// /////////
Voiced

There are two main consequences of not doubling the second category of words: Either your
listener will hear the wrong word, or even worse, you will always sound upset.
3

Consider that the words curt, short, terse, abrupt, and clipped all literally mean short. When applied
to a person or to language, they take on the meaning of upset or rude. For example, in the
expressions "His curt reply ...," "Her terse response...'' or "He was very short with me" all indicate a
less than sunny situation.

Three Ways to Make Intonation
About this time, you're coming to the point where you may be wondering, what exactly are the
mechanics of intonation? What changes when you go to the top of the staircase or when you put
stress on a word? There are three ways to stress a word.
+ The first way is to just get louder or raise the volume. This is not a very sophisticated way of doing
it, but it will definitely command attention.
+ The second way is to streeeeetch the word out or lengthen the word that you want to draw
attention to (which sounds very insinuating).
+ The third way, which is the most refined, is to change pitch. Although pausing just before
changing the pitch is effective, you don't want to do it every time, because then it becomes an
obvious technique. However, it will make your audience stop and listen because they think you're
going to say something interesting.

So what is intonation in American English? What do Americans do? We go up and down
staircases. We start high and end low.
We
///////// go
///////// /////////

up
///////// and
///////// ///////// down
///////// ///////// /////////

stair
///////// cases.
///////// /////////
///////// /////////

Every time we want to stress a word or an idea, we just start a new staircase. That sounds simple
enough, but when and where do you start a new staircase?

Statement Intonation with Nouns
Intonation or pitch change is primarily used to introduce new information. This means that when
you are making a statement for the first time, you will stress the nouns.
Dogs
bones
///////// eat
/////////
/////////

Statement Versus Question Intonation CD 1 Track 10
You may have learned at some point that questions have a rising intonation. They do, but usually
a question will step upward until the very end, where it takes one quick little downward step. A
question rises a little higher than a statement with the same intonation pattern.
"Here is my car."
Here
///////// is
///////// /////
///////// /////

If you know that your car is parked outside, however, and someone doesn't see it and asks you
where it is, you might think that it has been stolen and your emotion will show in your intonation
as you repeat the question. As your feelings rise in an emotional situation, your intonation rises
up along with them.
"Where is my car?"
Where
/////////
/////////
/////////
/////////

is
////
////
////

my
/////////
/////////

cä
/////
/////
/////
/////
/////

är?
/////
/////
/////
/////
/////
/////

"Why? Is it gone?"
Why?
///////// Is
///////// ///////// it
///////// ///////// ///

gä
/////////
/////////
/////////
/////////

än?
/////////
/////////
/////////
/////////
/////////

Exercise 1-4: Sentence Intonation Test

CD 1 Track 11

Pause the CD and underline or highlight the words that you think should be stressed. Check Answer
Key, beginning on page 193.
1. Sam sees Bill.
11. He sees him.
2. She wants one.
12. Mary wants a car.
3. Betty likes English.
13. She likes it.
4. They play with them.
14. They eat some.
5. Children play with toys.
15. Len and Joe eat some pizza.
6. Bob and I call you and Bill.
16. We call you.
1. You and Bill read the news.
17. You read it.
8. It tells one.
18. The news tells a story.
9. Bernard works in a restaurant. 19. Mark lived in France.
10. He works in one.
20. He lived there.
7

Exercise 1-5: Four Main Reasons for Intonation

CD 1 Track 12

Depending on the situation, a word may be stressed for any of the following reasons:

New Information
1. New Information

Opinion

Contrast

"Can't"

It sounds like rain.
Rain is the new information. It's the most important word in that sentence and you could replace
everything else with duh-duh-duh. Duh-duh-duh rain will still let you get your point across.
V Repeat: Duh-duh-duh rain I It sounds like rain.
Duh
ray
///// duh
///// ayn.
///// ///// duh
///// /////
///// ///// /////
///// /////

V Make rain very musical and put it on two notes: ray-ayn. Duh-duh-duh ray-ayn / It sounds
like ray-ayn.

2. Opinion

It sounds like rain, but I don't think it is.

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In this case, intonation makes the meaning the opposite of what the words say: It looks like a
diamond, but I think it's a zircon. It smells like Chanel, but at that price, it's a knock-off. It feels
like... It tastes like... These examples all give the impression that you mean the opposite of what your
senses tell you.
V Practice the intonation difference between new information and opinion:
It sounds like rain. (It's rain.) It sounds like rain, (but it's not.)

3. Contrast

He likes rain, but he hates snow.
Like and hate are contrasted and are the stronger words in the sentence.

4. Can't

It can't rain when there're no clouds.
Contractions (shouldn't, wouldn't) and negatives (no, not, never) are important words since they
totally negate the meaning of a sentence, but they are not usually stressed. Can't is the exception.
8

Exercise 1-6: Pitch and Meaning Change

CD 1 Track 13

Practice saying the four sentences after me. Pay close attention to the changes in pitch that you must
make to convey the different meanings intended. The words to be stressed are indicated in bold face.
1. It sounds like rain.
2. It sounds like rain.
3. He likes rain, but he hates snow.
4. It can't rain on my parade! He can't do it. (See also Ex. 1-43 for negatives.)

Exercise 1-7: Individual Practice

CD 1 Track 14

Practice saying the sentences after the suggestion and the beep tone +. You will be given only a
short time in which to reply so that you won't have the leisure to overthink. Start speaking as soon as
you hear the tone because I'll be saying the sentence only a few seconds later.
1. Convey the information that it really does sound as if rain is falling. +
2. Convey the opinion that although it has the sound of rain, it may be something else. +
3. Convey the different feelings that someone has about rain and snow. +
4. Convey the fact that rain is an impossibility right now. +

+ Pause the CD.
V Practice the four sentences on your own ten times.
+ Once you're familiar with moving the stress around and feeling how the meaning changes,
turn the CD on to continue with the next exercise.

Exercise 1-8: Meaning of "Pretty"

CD 1 Track 15

Native speakers make a clear distinction between pretty easily (easily) and pretty easily (a little
difficult). Repeat the answers after me paying close attention to your stress.
Question: How did you like the movie? Answer:
1. It was pretty good. (She liked it.)
2. It was pretty good. (She didn't like it much.)
9

Exercise 1-9: Inflection
Notice how the meaning changes, while the actual words stay the same.
1. I didn't say he stole the money. Someone else said it.
2. I didn't say he stole the money. That's not true at all.
3. I didn't say he stole the money. I only suggested the possibility.
4. I didn't say he stole the money. I think someone else took it.
5. I didn't say he stole the money. Maybe he just borrowed it.
6. I didn't say he stole the money, but rather some other money.

CD 1 Track 16

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7. I didn't say he stole the money. He may have taken some jewelry.
I didn't say he stole the money. Someone else said it.
I
It's true that somebody said it, but I wasn't that person.
Didn't

I didn't say he stole the money. That's not true at all.
Someone has accused me and I'm protesting my innocence.

Say

I didn't say he stole the money. I only suggested the possibility.
Maybe I hinted it. Maybe I wrote it. In some way, I indicated that he stole
the money, but I didn't say it.

He

I didn't say he stole the money. I think someone else took it.
I think someone stole the money, only not the person you suspect did it.

Stole

I didn't say he stole the money. Maybe he just borrowed it.
I agree that he took it, but I think his motive was different.

The

I didn't say he stole the money, but rather some other money.
We agree that he stole some money, but I don't think it's this money.

Money I didn't say he stole the money. He may have taken some jewelry.
We agree that he's a thief, but we think he stole different things.
Notice that in the first half of these sentences nothing changes but the intonation.
V Repeat after me.
10

Exercise 1-10; Individual Practice

CD 1 Track 17

Now, let's see what you can do with the same sentence, just by changing the stress around to
different words. I'll tell you which meaning to express. When you hear the tone +, say the sentence as
quickly as you can, then I'll say the sentence for you. To test your ear, I'm going to repeat the
sentences in random order. Try to determine which word I'm stressing. The answers are given in
parentheses, but don't look unless you really have to. Here we go.
1. Indicate that he borrowed the money and didn't steal it. (5) +
2. Indicate that you are denying having said that he stole it. (2) +
3. Indicate that you think he stole something besides money. (7) +
4. Indicate that you were not the person to say it. (1) +
5. Indicate that you don't think that he was the person who stole it. (4) +
6. Indicate that you didn't say it outright, but did suggest it in some way. (3) +
7. Indicate that he many have stolen a different amount of money. (6) +

Overdo It
Practice these sentences on your own, really exaggerating the word that you think should be
stressed. In the beginning, you're going to feel that this is ridiculous. (Nobody stresses this hard!
Nobody talks like this! People are going to laugh at me!) Yet as much as you may stress, you're
probably only going to be stressing about half as much as you should.
+ Pause the CD and practice the sentences in random order ten times.
Another reason you must overexaggerate is because when you get tired, emotional, or relaxed,
you will stop paying attention. When this happens, like a rubber band, you're going to snap back
to the way you originally were sounding (10 percent). So, if you just stretch yourself to the exact
position where you ideally want to be, you'll go back almost completely to the old way when you

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relax. For practice, then, stretch yourself far beyond the normal range of intonation (150
percent), so when you relax, you relax back to a standard American sound (100 percent).

We All Do It
Possibly about this time you're thinking, Well, maybe you do this in English, but in my language, I
just really don't think that we do this. I'd like you to try a little exercise.

Exercise 1-11: Translation

CD 1 Track 18

Take the sentence I didn't say he stole the money and translate it into your native language. Write
it down below, using whatever letters or characters you use in your language.
_______________________________
Now that you have written your sentence down, try shifting the stress around in your own
language by going through the stress patterns 1-7 in Exercise 1-9. Don't try to put on a
11

particularly American or other accent; just concentrate on stressing a different word in the
sentence each time you say it.
For example, if your language is German, Ich habe nicht gesagt daß er das Geld gestohlen hat, you
would change the stress to: Ich habe nicht gesagt daß er das Geld gestohlen hat, or Ich habe nicht
gesagt daß er das Geld gestohlen hat.
If you translated it into French, you would say, Je n'ai pas dit qu'il a vole l'argent, or Je n' pas dit
qu'il a vole l'argent.
In Japanese, many people think that there are no intonation changes, but if you hear someone
say, wakkanai, you'll realize that it has similarities to every other language. Watashi wa kare ga
okane o nusunda to wa iimasen deshita. Or perhaps, Watashi wa kare ga okane o nusunda to wa
ümasen deshita.
No matter how strange it may sound to you, stress each different word several times in your
language. You may notice that with some words it sounds perfectly normal, but with other words
it sounds very strange. Or you may find that in your language, rather than stressing a word, you
prefer to change the word order or substitute another word. Whatever you do is fine, as long as
you realize where your language patterns are similar to and different from the American English
intonation patterns. Then, when you do it again, in English, it will be much easier.
Note An excellent exercise is to practice speaking your native language with an American accent. If
you can sound like an American speaking your native language, imagine how easy it would be to
speak English with an American accent.
X Pause the CD and practice shifting the stressed words in your native language.

Intonation Contrast
Below are two sentences—the first is stressed on the most common, everyday word, book. Nine
times out of ten, people will stress the sentence in this way. The second sentence has a less
common, but perfectly acceptable intonation, since we are making a distinction between two
possible locations.

Normal intonation
Changed intonation

Where's the book? It's on the table.
Is the book on the table or under it? It's on the table.

X Pause the CD and repeat the sentences.

Exercise 1-12: Create Your Own Intonation Contrast

CD 1 Track 19

Write a short sentence and indicate where you think the most normal intonation would be placed.
Then, change the meaning of the sentence slightly and change the intonation accordingly.
___________________________
Normal intonation
___________________________
Changed intonation
12

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Exercise 1-13: Variable Stress

CD 1 Track 20

Notice how the meaning of the following sentence changes each time we change the stress
pattern. You should be starting to feel in control of your sentences now.
1. What would you like ?
This is the most common version of the sentence, and it is just a simple request for
information.
2. What would you like?
This is to single out an individual from a group.
3. What would you like?
You've been discussing the kinds of things he might like and you want to determine
his specific desires: "Now that you mention it, what would you like?"
or
He has rejected several things and a little exasperated, you ask, "If you don't want
any of these, what would you like?"
4. What would you like?
You didn't hear and you would like the speaker to repeat herself.
or
You can't believe what you heard: "I'd like strawberry jam on my asparagus."
— "What would you like ?"

+ Turn off the CD and repeat the four sentences.
Exercise 1 -14: Make a Variable Stress Sentence

CD 1 Track 21

Now you decide which words should be emphasized. Write a normal, everyday sentence with at
least seven words and put it through as many changes as possible. Try to make a pitch change
for each word in the sentence and think about how it changes the meaning of the entire sentence.
1.________________________________________________________
2.________________________________________________________
3.________________________________________________________
4.________________________________________________________
5.________________________________________________________
6.________________________________________________________
7.________________________________________________________
13

Application of Intonation

CD 1 Track 22

There is always at least one stressed word in a sentence and frequently you can have quite a few
if you are introducing a lot of new information or if you want to contrast several things. Look at
the paragraph in Exercise 1-15. Take a pencil and mark every word that you think should be
stressed or sound stronger than the words around it. I'd like you to make just an accent mark (')
to indicate a word you think should sound stronger than others around it.
Reminder The three ways to change your voice for intonation are: (1) Volume (speak louder),
(2) Length (stretch out a word), and (3) Pitch (change your tone).
* Pause the CD and work on the paragraph below.

Exercise 1 -15: Application of Stress

CD 1 Track 23

Mark every word or syllable with ' where you think that the sound is stressed. Use the first sentence
as your example. Check Answer Key, beginning on page 193. Pause the CD.

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Hello, my’ name is______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to
learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation
pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use the up and
down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell
me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to
listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
V Listen and re-mark the stressed words with your marker. After you've put in the accent marks
where you think they belong, take one of the colored translucent markers and as I read very
slowly, mark the words that I stress. I am going to exaggerate the words far more than you'd
normally hear in a normal reading of the paragraph. You can mark either the whole word or just
the strong syllable, whichever you prefer, so that you have a bright spot of color for where the
stress should fall.
Note If you do the exercise only in pencil, your eye and mind will tend to skip over the accent marks.
The spots of color, however, will register as "different" and thereby encourage your pitch change.
This may strike you as unusual, but trust me, it works.
* Pause the CD and practice reading the paragraph out loud three times on your own.
14

How You Talk Indicates to People How You Are
Beware of "Revealing" a Personality that You Don't Have!

CD 1 Track 24

There is no absolute right or wrong in regard to intonation because a case can be made for stressing
just about any word or syllable, but you actually reveal a lot about yourself by the elements you
choose to emphasize. For example, if you say, Hello, this intonation would indicate doubt. This is
why you say, Hello ? when answering the telephone because you don't know who is on the other
end. Or when you go into a house and you don't know who's there because you don't see anyone. But
if you're giving a speech or making a presentation and you stand up in front of a crowd and say,
Hello, the people would probably laugh because it sounds so uncertain. This is where you'd
confidently want to say Hello, my name is So-and-so.
A second example is, my name is—as opposed to my name is. If you stress name, it sounds as if you
are going to continue with more personal information: My name is So-and-so, my address is suchand-such, my blood type is O. Since it may not be your intention to give all that information, stay
with the standard—Hello, my name is So-and-so.
If you stress / every time, it will seem that you have a very high opinion of yourself. Try it: I'm
taking American Accent Training. I've been paying attention to pitch, too. I think I'm quite
wonderful.
An earnest, hard-working person might emphasize words this way: I'm taking American Accent
Training (Can I learn this stuff?). I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible (I'll force myself to
enjoy it if I have to). Although the only way to get it is to practice all the time (24 hours a day).
A Doubting Thomas would show up with: I should pick up on (but I might not) the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, (but it looks pretty hard, too). I've been talking to a lot of Americans
lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand (but I think they're just being polite).

Exercise 1-16: Paragraph Intonation Practice

CD 1 Track 25

V From your color-marked copy, read each sentence of the paragraph in Exercise 1-15 after me. Use
your rubber band, give a clear pitch change to the highlighted words, and think about the meaning
that the pitch is conveying.
× Back up the CD and practice this paragraph three times.
× Pause the CD and practice three times on your own.

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15

Exercise 1-17: Staircase Intonation Practice

CD 1 Track 26

Draw one step of the staircase for each word of the paragraph. Start a new staircase for every
stressed word. There usually is more than one staircase in a sentence. New sentences don't have to
start new staircases; they can continue from the previous sentence until you come to a stressed word.
I'll read the beginning sentences. Check the first sentence against the example. Then put the words of
the second sentence on a staircase, based on the way I read it. Remember, I'm exaggerating to make
a point.

V Write out the rest of the staircases.
× Turn the CD back on to check your staircases with the way I read the paragraph. × Pause the
CD again to check your staircases in the Answer Key, beginning on page 193. × Back up the
CD, and listen and repeat my reading of the paragraph while following the staircases in the
Answer Key.
16

Exercise 1-18: Reading with Staircase Intonation
Track 27

CD 1

Read the following with clear intonation where marked.
Hello, my name is__________________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's
a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 1-19: Spelling and Numbers
Track 28

CD 1

Just as there is stress in words or phrases, there is intonation in spelling and numbers. Americans
seem to spell things out much more than other people. In any bureaucratic situation, you'll be asked
to spell names and give all kinds of numbers—your phone number, your birth date, and so on. There
is a distinct stress and rhythm pattern to both spelling and numbers—usually in groups of three or
four letters or numbers, with the stress falling on the last member of the group. Acronyms (phrases

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that are represented by the first letter of each word) and initials are usually stressed on the last
letter. Just listen to the words as I say them, then repeat the spelling after me.

Exercise 1-20; Sound/Meaning Shifts CD 1 Track 29
Intonation is powerful. It can change meaning and pronunciation. Here you will get the chance to
play with the sounds. Remember, in the beginning, the meaning isn't that important—just work on
getting control of your pitch changes. Use your rubber band for each stressed word.
my tie
mai-tai
Might I?
My keys?
my keys
Mikey's
inn key
in key
inky
my tea
My D
mighty
I have to.
I have two. I have, too.

How many kids do you have?
I've been to Europe.
Why do you work so hard?

I have two.
I have, too.
I have to.

Exercise 1-21: Squeezed-Out Syllables CD 1 Track 30
Intonation can also completely get rid of certain entire syllables. Some longer words that are
stressed on the first syllable squeeze weak syllables right out. Cover up the regular columns and
read the words between the brackets.
actually
[æk•chully]
every
[εvree]

Syllable Stress CD 1 Track 31
Syllable Count Intonation Patterns
In spoken English, if you stress the wrong syllable, you can totally lose the meaning of a word:
"MA-sheen" is hardly recognizable as "ma-SHEEN" or machine.
At this point, we won't be concerned with why we are stressing a particular syllable— that
understanding will come later.

Exercise 1-22: Syllable Patterns

CD 1 Track 32

In order to practice accurate pitch change, repeat the following column. Each syllable will count as
one musical note. Remember that words that end in a vowel or a voiced consonant will be longer
than ones ending in an unvoiced consonant.

Complex Intonation
Word Count Intonation Patterns
CD 1 Track 34
This is the beginning of an extremely important part of spoken American English—the rhythms
and intonation patterns of the long streams of nouns and adjectives that are so commonly used.
These exercises will tie in the intonation patterns of adjectives (nice, old, best, etc.), nouns (dog,
house, surgeon, etc.), and adverbs (very, really, amazingly, etc.)
One way of approaching sentence intonation is not to build each sentence from scratch. Instead,
use patterns, with each pattern similar to a mathematical formula. Instead of plugging in
numbers, however, plug in words.
In Exercise 1-2, we looked at simple noun•verb•noun patterns, and in Exercise 1-22 and 1-23,
the syllable-count intonation patterns were covered and tested. In Exercises 1-24 to 1-37, we'll
examine intonation patterns in two word phrases.

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It's important to note that there's a major difference between syllable stress and compound noun
stress patterns. In the syllable count exercises, each syllable was represented by a single musical
note. In the noun phrases, each individual word will be represented by a single musical note—no
matter how many total syllables there may be.
At times, what appears to be a single syllable word will have a "longer" sound to it— seed takes
longer to say than seat for example. This was introduced on page 3, where you learned that a
final voiced consonant causes the previous vowel to double.

Nouns are "heavier" than adjectives; they carry the weight of the new information. An adjective and a
noun combination is called a descriptive phrase, and in the absence of contrast or other secondary
changes, the stress will always fall naturally on the noun. In the absence of a noun, you will stress the
adjective, but as soon as a noun appears on the scene, it takes immediate precedence—and should be
stressed.

5. It's the back door.
It's far back.
6. There are four cards. There are only four.
1. It's a small spot.
It's laughably small.
8. It's a good book.
It's amazingly good.
Puase the CD and write your own adjective/noun and adverb/adjective sentences, carrying over Ex.
1-25.
9. It's a _____________ It's _____________
10. It's a _____________ It's _____________
11. It's a _____________ It's _____________
The following well-known story has been rewritten to contain only descriptions. Stress the second
word of each phrase. Repeat after me.

Exercise 1-27: Descriptive Phrase Story—The Ugly Duckling
CD1 Track 39
There is a mother duck. She lays three eggs. Soon, there are three baby birds. Two of the birds are
very beautiful. One of them is quite ugly. The beautiful ducklings make fun of their ugly brother.
The poo r thing is very unhappy. As the three birds grow older, the ugly duckling begins to change.
His gray feathers turn snowy white. His gangly neck becomes beautifully smooth.
In early spring, the ugly duckling is swimming in a small pond in the backyard of the old farm. He
sees his shimmering reflection in the clear water. What a great surprise. He is no longer an ugly
duckling. He has grown into a lovely swan.

Set Phrases
CD 1 Track 40
A Cultural Indoctrination to American Norms

When I learned the alphabet as a child, I heard it before I saw it. I heard that the last four letters
were dubba-you, ex, why, zee. I thought that dubbayou was a long, strange name for a letter, but I
didn't question it any more than I did aitch. It was just a name. Many years later, it struck me that
it was a double U. Of course, a W is really UU. I had such a funny feeling, though, when I
realized that something I had taken for granted for so many years had a background meaning that
I had completely overlooked. This "funny feeling" is exactly what most native speakers get when

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a two-word phrase is stressed on the wrong word. When two individual words go through the
cultural process of becoming a set phrase, the original sense of each word is more or less
forgotten and the new meaning completely takes over. When we hear the word painkiller, we
think anesthetic. If, however, someone says painkiller, it brings up the strength and almost
unrelated meaning of kill.
When you have a two-word phrase, you have to either stress on the first word, or on
25

the second word. If you stress both or neither, it's not clear what you are trying to say. Stress on
the first word is more noticeable and one of the most important concepts of intonation that you
are going to study. At first glance, it doesn't seem significant, but the more you look at this
concept, the more you are going to realize that it reflects how we Americans think, what
concepts we have adopted as our own, and what things we consider important.
Set phrases are our "cultural icons," or word images; they are indicators of a determined use that
we have internalized. These set phrases, with stress on the first word, have been taken into
everyday English from descriptive phrases, with stress on the second word. As soon as a
descriptive phrase becomes a set phrase, the emphasis shifts from the second word to the first.
The original sense of each word is more or less forgotten and the new meaning takes over.
Set phrases indicate that we have internalized this phrase as an image, that we all agree on a
concrete idea that this phrase represents. A hundred years or so ago, when Levi Strauss first
came out with his denim pants, they were described as blue jeans. Now that we all agree on the
image, however, they are blue jeans.
A more recent example would be the descriptive phrase, He 's a real party animal. This slang
expression refers to someone who has a great time at a party. When it first became popular, the
people using it needed to explain (with their intonation) that he was an animal at a party. As time
passed, the expression became cliche and we changed the intonation to He's a real party animal
because "everyone knew" what it meant.
Cliches are hard to recognize in a new language because what may be an old and tired
expression to a native speaker may be fresh and exciting to a newcomer. One way to look at
English from the inside out, rather than always looking from the outside in, is to get a feel for
what Americans have already accepted and internalized. This starts out as a purely language
phenomenon, but you will notice that as you progress and undergo the relentless cultural
indoctrination of standard intonation patterns, you will find yourself expressing yourself with the
language cues and signals that will mark you as an insider—not an outsider.
When the interpreter was translating for the former Russian President Gorbachev about his trip
to San Francisco in 1990, his pronunciation was good, but he placed himself on the outside by
repeatedly saying, cable car. The phrase cable car is an image, an established entity, and it was
very noticeable to hear it stressed on the second word as a mere description.
An important point that I would like to make is that the "rules" you are given here are not meant
to be memorized. This discussion is only an introduction to give you a starting point in
understanding this phenomenon and in recognizing what to listen for. Read it over; think about
it; then listen, try it out, listen some more, and try it out again.
As you become familiar with intonation, you will become more comfortable with American
norms, thus the cultural orientation, or even cultural indoctrination, aspect of the following
examples.
Note When you get the impression that a two-word description could be hyphenated or even made
into one word, it is a signal that it could be a set phrase—for example, flash light, flash-light,
flashlight. Also, stress the first word with Street (Main Street) and nationalities of food and people
(Mexican food, Chinese girls).
26

Exercise 1-28: Sentence Stress with Set Phrases
41
Repeat the following sentences.

CD 1 Track

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Noun

Noun/Adj.

Set Phrase

1. It's a finger.
It's a nail.
It's a fingernail.
2. It's a pan.
It's a cake.
It's a pancake.
3. It's a tub.
It's hot.
It's a hot tub. (Jacuzzi)
4. It's a drive.
It's hard.
It's a hard drive.
5. It's a bone.
It's in back.
It's the backbone. (spine)
6. It's a card.
It's a trick.
It's a card trick.
7. It's a spot.
It's a light.
It's a spotlight.
8. It's a book.
It's a phone.
It's a phone book.
Pause the CD and write your own noun and set phrase sentences, carrying over the same nouns you
used in Exercise 1-25. Remember, when you use a noun, include the article (a, an, the); when you
use an adjective, you don't need an article.

9. It's a_________
10. It's a_________
11. It's a_________

It's a_________
It's a_________
It's a_________

It's a_____________
It's a_____________
It's a_____________

Exercise 1-29: Making Set Phrases
CD 1 Track 42
Pause the CD and add a noun to each word as indicated by the picture. Check Answer Key,
beginning on page 193.

27

Exercise 1-30: Set Phrase Story—The Little Match Girl
Track 43

CD 1

The following story contains only set phrases, as opposed to the descriptive story in Exercise 1-27.
Stress the first word of each phrase.
The little match girl was out in a snowstorm. Her feet were like ice cubes and her fingertips had
frostbite. She hadn't sold any matches since daybreak, and she had a stomachache from the
hunger pangs, but her stepmother would beat her with a broomstick if she came home with an
empty coin purse. Looking into the bright living rooms, she saw Christmas trees and warm
fireplaces. Out on the snowbank, she lit match and saw the image of a grand dinner table of
food before her. As the matchstick burned, the illusion slowly faded. She lit another one and
saw a room full of happy family members. On the last match, her grandmother came down and
carried her home. In the morning, the passersby saw the little match girl. She had frozen during
the nighttime, but she had a smile on her face.

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Contrasting a Description and a Set Phrase
We now have two main intonation patterns—first word stress and second word stress. In the
following exercise, we will contrast the two.

Exercise 1-31: Contrasting Descriptive and Set Phrases
44

CD 1 Track

Repeat after me.

Descriptive Phrase

Set Phrase

1. It's a short nail.
It's a fingernail.
2. It's a chocolate cake.
It's a pancake.
3. It's a hot bath.
It's a hot tub.
4. It's a long drive.
It's a hard drive.
5. It's the back door.
It's the backbone.
6. There are four cards.
It's a card trick.
7. It's a small spot.
It's a spot light.
8. It's a good book.
It's a phone book
Pause the CD and rewrite your descriptive phrases (Ex. 1-25) and set phrases (Ex. 1-28).
9. It's a _____________
It's a _____________
10. It's a _____________
It's a _____________
11. It's a _____________
It's a _____________
28

Nationalities
When you are in a foreign country, the subject of nationalities naturally comes up a lot. It would
be nice if there were a simple rule that said that all the words using nationalities are stressed on
the first word. There isn't, of course. Take this preliminary quiz to see if you need to do this
exercise. For simplicity's sake, we will stick with one nationality—American.

Exercise 1-33; Nationality Intonation Quiz CD 2 Track 1
Pause the CD and stress one word in each of the following examples. Repeat after me.
1. an American guy
2. an American restaurant
3. American food
4. an American teacher
5. an English teacher
When you first look at it, the stress shifts may seem arbitrary, but let's examine the logic behind
these five examples and use it to go on to other, similar cases.
30

1. an Américan guy
The operative word is American; guy could even be left out without changing the meaning of the
phrase. Compare / saw two American guys yesterday, with / saw two Americans yesterday.
Words like guy, man, kid, lady, people are de facto pronouns in an anthropocentric language. A
strong noun, on the other hand, would be stressed— They flew an American flag. This is why
you have the pattern change in Exercise 1-22: 4e, Jim killed a man; but 4b, He killed a snake.

2. an American restaurant
Don't be sidetracked by an ordinary descriptive phrase that happens to have a nationality in it.
You are describing the restaurant, We went to a good restaurant yesterday or We went to an
American restaurant yesterday. You would use the same pattern where the nationality is more or
less incidental in / had French toast for breakfast. French fry, on the other hand, has become a

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set phrase.

3. Américan food
Food is a weak word. I never ate American food when I lived in Japan. Let's have Chinese food for
dinner.

4. an American teacher
This is a description, so the stress is on teacher.

5. an Énglish teacher
This is a set phrase. The stress is on the subject being taught, not the nationality of the teacher: a
French teacher, a Spanish teacher, a history teacher.

Exercise 1-34: Contrasting Descriptive and Set Phrases

CD 2 Track 2

Repeat the following pairs.

Set Phrase

An English teacher...
...teaches English.
An English book...
...teaches the English language.
An English test...
...tests a student on the English language.
English food...
. . .is kippers for breakfast.

Descriptive Phrase

An English teacher...
...is from England.
An English book...is on any subject,
but it came from England.
An English test... is on any subject,
but it deals with or came from England.
An English restaurant...
...serves kippers for breakfast.

31

Intonation can indicate completely different meanings for otherwise similar words or phrases.
For example, an English teacher teaches English, but an English teacher is from England;
French class is where you study French, but French class is Gallic style and sophistication; an
orange tree grows oranges, but an orange tree is any kind of tree that has been painted orange.
To have your intonation tested, call (800) 457-4255.

Exercise 1-35: Contrast of Compound Nouns
3

CD 2 Track

In the following list of words, underline the element that should be stressed. Pause the CD.
Afterwards, check Answer Key, beginning on page 193. Repeat after me.
1. The White House 21. convenience store 41.
a doorknob
2. a white house
22. convenient store
42.
a glass door
3.

a darkroom

23.

to pick up

43.

a locked door

4.

a dark room

24.

a pickup truck

44.

ice cream

5.

Fifth Avenue

25.

six years old

45.

I scream.

6.

Main Street

26.

a six-year-old

46.

elementary

7.

a main street

27.

six and a half

47.

a lemon tree

8.

a hot dog

28.

a sugar bowl

48.

Watergate

9.

a hot dog

29.

a wooden bowl

49.

the back gate

10. a baby blanket

30.

a large bowl

50.

the final year

Стр. 44 из 185

11. a baby's blanket

31.

a mixing bowl

51.

a yearbook

12. a baby bird

32.

a top hat

52.

United States

13. a blackbird

33.

a nice hat

53.

New York

14. a black bird

34.

a straw hat

54.

Long Beach

15. a greenhouse

35.

a chairperson

55.

Central Park

16. a green house

36.

Ph.D.

56.

a raw deal

17. a green thumb

37.

IBM

57.

a deal breaker

18. a parking ticket

38.

MIT

58.

the bottom line

19. a one-way ticket

39.

USA

59.

a bottom feeder

20. an unpaid ticket

40.

ASAP

60.

a new low

32

Exercise 1-36: Description and Set Phrase Test

CD 2 Track 4

Let's check and see if the concepts are clear. Pause the CD and underline or highlight the stressed
word. Check Answer Key, beginning on page 193. Repeat after me.
1. He's a nice guy.
2. He's an American guy from San Francisco.
3. The cheerleader needs a rubber band to hold her ponytail.
4. The executive assistant needs a paper clip for the final report.
5. The law student took an English test in a foreign country.
6. The policeman saw a red car on the freeway in Los Angeles.
7. My old dog has long ears and a flea problem.
8. The new teacher broke his coffee cup on the first day.
9. His best friend has a broken cup in his other office.
10. Let's play football on the weekend in New York.
11. "Jingle Bells" is a nice song.
12. Where are my new shoes?
13. Where are my tennis shoes?
14. I have a headache from the heat wave in South Carolina.
15. The newlyweds took a long walk in Long Beach.
16. The little dog was sitting on the sidewalk.
17. The famous athlete changed clothes in the locker room.
18. The art exhibit was held in an empty room.
19. There was a class reunion at the high school.
20. The headlines indicated a new policy.
21. We got on line and went to americanaccent dot com.
22. The stock options were listed in the company directory.
23. All the second-graders were out on the playground.
33

Exercise 1-37: Descriptions and Set Phrases—Goldilocks
2 Track 5

CD

Read the story and stress the indicated words. Notice if they are a description, a set phrase or
contrast. For the next level of this topic, go to page 111. Repeat after me.
There is a little girl. Her name is Goldilocks. She is in a sunny forest. She sees a small house.

Стр. 45 из 185

She knocks on the door, but no one answers. She goes inside. In the large room, there are three
chairs. Goldilocks sits on the biggest chair, but it is too high. She sits on the middle-sized one,
but it is too low. She sits on the small chair and it is just right. On the table, there are three
bowls. There is hot porridge in the bowls. She tries the first one, but it is too hot; the second one
is too cold, and the third one is just right, so she eats it all. After that, she goes upstairs. She
looks around. There are three beds, so she sits down. The biggest bed is too hard. The middlesized bed is too soft. The little one is just right, so she lies down. Soon, she falls asleep. In the
meantime, the family of three bears comes home — the Papa bear, the Mama bear, and the
Baby bear. They look around.
They say, "Who's been sitting in our chairs and eating our porridge?" Then they run upstairs.
They say, "Who's been sleeping in our beds?" Goldilocks wakes up. She is very scared. She runs
away. Goldilocks never comes back.
Note Up to this point, we have gone into great detail on the intonation patterns of nouns. We
shall now examine the intonation patterns of verbs.
34

Grammar in a Nutshell

CD 2 Track
6

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Grammar... But Were Afraid to Use

English is a chronological language. We just love to know when something happened, and this is
indicated by the range and depth of our verb tenses.
I had already seen it by the time she brought it in.
As you probably learned in your grammar studies, "the past perfect is an action in the past that
occurred before a separate action in the past." Whew! Not all languages do this. For example,
Japanese is fairly casual about when things happened, but being a hierarchical language, it is
very important to know what relationship the two people involved had. A high-level person with
a low-level one, two peers, a man and a woman, all these things show up in Japanese grammar.
Grammatically speaking, English is democratic.
The confusing part is that in English the verb tenses are very important, but instead of putting
them up on the peaks of a sentence, we throw them all deep down in the valleys! Therefore, two
sentences with strong intonation—such as, "Dogs eat bones" and "The dogs'll've eaten the
bones" sound amazingly similar. Why? Because it takes the same amount of time to say both
sentences since they have the same number of stresses. The three original words and the rhythm
stay the same in these sentences, but the meaning changes as you add more stressed words.
Articles and verb tense changes are usually not stressed.
Dogs
bones
//////// eat
/////////
/////// /////
/////////

The
däg
///////
///////

dogs
///////
///////
///////
///////
///////

zeet
///////
däg

'll
////
////
////
////

've
////
////
////

eaten
/////// the
/////// /////

bones.
/////////
/////////
/////////
/////////
/////////

bounz
///////
///////
bounz

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the

///////
///////
///////
///////
///////

z'
//////
//////
//////
//////

l'
////// vee(t)
////// ////// n
////// ////// ////// the

//////////
//////////
//////////
//////////
//////////

Now let's see how this works in the exercises that follow.
35

Exercise 1-38; Consistent Noun Stress in Changing Verb Tenses
Track 7

CD 2

This is a condensed exercise for you to practice simple intonation with a wide range of verb tenses.
When you do the exercise the first time, go through stressing only the nouns Dogs eat bones.
Practice this until you are quite comfortable with the intonation. The pronunciation and word
connections are on the right, and the full verb tenses are on the far left.
eat
1. The dogs eat the bones.
the däg zeet the bounz
ate
2. The dogs ate the bones.
the däg zεit the bounz
are eating
will eat

3.
4.

The dogs're eating the bones.
The dogs'll eat the bones (if...)

the däg zr reeding the bounz
the däg zə leet the bounz (if...)

would eat

5.

The dogs'd eat the bones (if...)

the däg zə deet the bounz (if...)

would have
eaten
that have
eaten
have eaten

6.

The dogs'd've eaten the bones (if..)

the däg zədə veetn the bounz (if...)

7.

The dogs that've eaten the bones (are..)

8.

The dogs've eaten the bones.

the däg zədə veetn the bounz
(are...)
the däg zə veetn the bounz

had eaten

9.

The dogs'd eaten the bones.

the däg zə deetn the bounz

will have
eaten
ought to eat

10. The dogs'll've eaten the bones.

the däg zələ veetn the bounz

11. The dogs ought to eat the bones.

the däg zädə eat the bounz

should eat

12. The dogs should eat the bones.

the dägz sh'deet the bounz

should not eat 13. The dogs shouldn't eat the bones.

the dägz sh'dn•neet the bounz

should have
eaten
should not
have
could eat

14. The dogs should've eaten the bones.

the dägz sh'də veetn the bounz

15. The dogs shouldn't've eaten the bones.

the dägz sh'dn•nə veetn the bounz

16. The dogs could eat the bones.

the dägz c'deet the bounz

could not eat

17. The dogs couldn't eat the bones.

the dägz c'dn•neet the bounz

could have
18. The dogs could've eaten the bones.
eaten
could not have 19. The dogs couldn't've eaten the bones.

This is the same as the previous exercise, except you now stress the verbs: They eat them. Practice
this until you are quite comfortable with the intonation. Notice that in fluent speech, the th of them is
frequently dropped (as is the h in the other object pronouns, him, her). The pronunciation and word
connections are on the right, and the tense name is on the far left.
present
1. They eat them.
theyeed'm
past
2. They ate them.
theyεid'm
continuous

On the first of the numbered lines below, write a three-word sentence that you frequently use, such
as "Computers organize information" or "Lawyers sign contracts" and put it through the 25
changes. This exercise will take you quite a bit of time and it will force you to rethink your

Стр. 48 из 185

perceptions of word sounds as related to spelling. It helps to use a plural noun that ends in a [z]
sound (boyz, dogz) rather than an [s] sound (hats, books). Also, your sentence will flow better if your
verb begins with a vowel sound (earns, owes, offers). When you have finished filling in all the upper
lines of this exercise with your new sentence, use the guidelines from Ex. 1-38 for the phonetic
transcription. Remember, don't rely on spelling. Turn off the CD.
eat

1.

____________

ate

2.

3.

4.

would eat

5.

6.

that have eaten 7.

8.

had eaten

9.

10.

•

____________

____________

____________
•

____________

____________

____________
•

____________

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________

____________
____________

•

____________

____________
____________

will have eaten

•

____________
____________

____________

____________

____________

____________
____________

have eaten

•

____________
____________

____________

____________

____________
____________

would have
eaten

•

____________
____________

____________

____________

•

____________

____________
____________

will eat

•

____________
____________

are eating

____________

____________

•

____________

____________
•

____________

38

Exercise 1 -40: Intonation in Hour Own Sentence continued
9
ought to eat

11.

should eat

12.

13.

•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
____________

should not eat

____________

____________
____________

CD 2 Track

•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
•

____________

____________
____________

•

Стр. 49 из 185

should have
eaten

14.

____________
____________
____________

should not have 15.
eaten
16.

17.

could have
eaten

18.

19.

might eat

20.

21.

must eat

22.

•

•

____________

____________

____________

•

____________

•

____________

•

____________

•

____________

____________
____________

•

____________
____________

•

____________
____________

•

____________
•

____________
____________

____________
•

____________
____________

____________
•

____________
____________

____________

____________
____________

•

____________

____________
____________

____________

____________
____________

____________

____________
____________

might have
eaten

•

____________
____________

•

____________

____________
____________

could not have

•

____________
____________

____________

____________
____________

____________

____________
____________

could not eat

•

____________
____________

could eat

____________
____________

____________
____________

•

____________

1-40: Intonation in Your Own Sentence continued CD 2 Track 9
must have
eaten

23.

____________

can eat

24.

25.

•

•

Exercise 1-41: Supporting Words

•

____________

•

____________

____________
____________

•

____________

____________
____________

____________

____________

____________

____________
____________

can't eat

____________

____________

____________
____________

•

____________

CD 2 Track 10

For this next part of the intonation of grammatical elements, each sentence has a few extra words to
help you get the meaning. Keep the same strong intonation that you used before and add the new
stress where you see the bold face. Use your rubber band.
1.
The dogs eat the bones every day.
th' däg zeet th' bounzevree day
2.
The dogs ate the bones last week.
th' däg zεit th' bounzlæss dweek

Стр. 50 из 185

3.
4.

The dogs 're eating the bones right now.
The dogs'll eat the bones if they're here.

Now, let's work with contrast. For example, The dogs'd eat the bones, and The dogs'd eaten the
bones, are so close in sound, yet so far apart in meaning, that you need to make a special point of
recognizing the difference by listening for content. Repeat each group of sentences using sound and
intonation for contrast.
would eat
5.
The dogs'd eat the bones.
the däg zə deet the bounz
had eaten
9.
The dogs'd eaten the bones.
the däg zə deetn the bounz
would have eaten
6.
The dogs'd've eaten the bones. the däg zədə veetn the bounz
that have eaten
7.
The dogs that've eaten the
the däg zədə veetn the bounz
bones.
will eat
4.
The dogs'll eat the bones.
the däg zə leet the bounz
would eat
5.
The dogs'd eat the bones.
the däg zə deet the bounz
would have eaten
6.
The dogs'd've eaten the bones. the däg zədə veetn the bounz
have eaten
8.
The dogs've eaten the bones.
the däg zə veetn the bounz
had eaten
9.
The dogs'd eaten the bones.
the däg zə deetn the bounz
will have eaten
10. The dogs'll have eaten the
the däg zələ veetn the bounz
bones.
would eat
5.
The dogs'd eat the bones.
the däg zə deet the bounz
ought to eat
11. The dogs ought to eat the bones. the däg zädə eat the bounz
can eat
24. The dogs can eat the bones.
the dägz c'neet the bounz
can't eat
25. The dogs can't eat the bones.
the dägz cæn(d)eet the bounz

Exercise 1 -43; Yes, You Can or No, You Can't?
12

CD 2 Track

Next you use a combination of intonation and pronunciation to make the difference between can and
can't. Reduce the positive can to [k 'n] and stress the verb. Make the negative can't ([kæn(t)]) sound
very short and stress both can't and the verb. This will contrast with the positive, emphasized can,
which is doubled—and the verb is not stressed. If you have trouble with can't before a word that
starts with a vowel, such as open, put in a very small [(d)]— The keys kæn(d) open the locks. Repeat.
positive
I can do it.
[I k'n do it]
(t)
negative
I can't do it.
[I kæn do it]
extra positive
I can do it.
[I kææn do it]
(t)
extra negative
I can't do it.
[I kæn do it]
41

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Exercise 1 -44: Building an Intonation Sentence

CD 2 Track 13

Repeat after me the sentences listed in the following groups.
1. I bought a sandwich.
2. I said I bought a sandwich.
3. I said I think I bought a sandwich.
4. I said I really think I bought a sandwich.
5. I said I really think I bought a chicken sandwich.
6. I said I really think I bought a chicken salad sandwich.
7. I said I really think I bought a half a chicken salad sandwich.
8. I said I really think I bought a half a chicken salad sandwich this afternoon.
9. I actually said I really think I bought a half a chicken salad sandwich this afternoon.
10. I actually said I really think I bought another half a chicken salad sandwich this
afternoon.
11. Can you believe I actually said I really think I bought another half a chicken salad
sandwich this afternoon?

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

I did it.
I did it again.
I already did it again.
I think I already did it again.
I said I think I already did it again.
I said I think I already did it again yesterday.
I said I think I already did it again the day before yesterday.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

I want a ball.
I want a large ball.
I want a large, red ball.
I want a large, red, bouncy ball.
I want a large, red bouncy rubber ball.
I want a large, red bouncy rubber basketball.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

I want a raise.
I want a big raise.
I want a big, impressive raise.
I want a big, impressive, annual raise.
I want a big, impressive, annual cost of living raise.

In the list below, change the stress from the first syllable for nouns to the second syllable for verbs.
This is a regular, consistent change. Intonation is so powerful that you'll notice that when the stress
changes, the pronunciation of the vowels do, too.

an accent
a concert
a conflict
a contest
a contract
a contrast
a convert
a convict
a default
a desert*
a discharge
an envelope
an incline
an influence
an insert
an insult
an object
perfect
a permit
a present
produce
progress
a project
a pronoun
a protest
a rebel
a recall
a record
a reject

to accent
to concert
to conflict
to contest
to contract
to contrast
to convert
to convict
to default
to desert
to discharge
to envelop
to incline
to influence
to insert
to insult
to object
to perfect
to permit
to present
to produce
to progress
to project
to pronounce
to protest
to rebel
to recall
to record
to reject

research
[res'rch]
to research
[r'srch]
a subject
[s'bjekt]
to subject
[s'bjekt]
a survey
[s'rvei]
to survey
[s'rvei]
a suspect
[s'spekt]
to suspect
[s'spekt]
* The désert is hot and dry. A dessért is ice cream. To desért is to abandon.
† Pronunciation symbols (w) and (y) represent a glide sound. This is explained on page 63.
44

Exercise 1-47: Regular Transitions of Adjectives and Verbs

CD 2 Track n

A different change occurs when you go from an adjective or a noun to a verb. The stress stays in the
same place, but the -mate in an adjective is completely reduced [-m't], whereas in a verb, it is a full
[a] sound [-mεit].

Verbs
to advocate
to animate
to alternate
to appropriate
to approximate
to articulate
to associate
to deliberate
to descriminate
to duplicate
to elaborate
to estimate
to graduate
to intimate
to moderate
to predicate
to separate

Mark the intonation or indicate the long vowel on the italicized word, depending which part of
speech it is. Pause the CD and mark the proper syllables. See Answer Key, beginning on page 193.
1. You need to insert a paragraph here on this newspaper insert.
2. How can you object to this object?
3. I'd like to present you with this present.
4. Would you care to elaborate on his elaborate explanation?
5. The manufacturer couldn't recall if there'd been a recall.
6. The religious convert wanted to convert the world.
7. The political rebels wanted to rebel against the world.
8. The mogul wanted to record a new record for his latest artist.
9. If you perfect your intonation, your accent will be perfect.
10. Due to the drought, the fields didn't produce much produce this year.
11. Unfortunately, City Hall wouldn't permit them to get a permit.
12. Have you heard that your associate is known to associate with gangsters?
13. How much do you estimate that the estimate will be?
14. The facilitator wanted to separate the general topic into separate categories.
45

The Miracle Technique

CD 2 Track 18

Стр. 54 из 185

Regaining Long-Lost Listening Skills
The trouble with starting accent training after you know a great deal of English is that you know
a great deal about English. You have a lot of preconceptions and, unfortunately, misconceptions
about the sound of English.

A Child Can Learn Any Language
Every sound of every language is within every child. So, what happens with adults? People learn
their native language and stop listening for the sounds that they never hear; then they lose the
ability to hear those sounds. Later, when you study a foreign language, you learn a lot of spelling
rules that take you still further away from the real sound of that language—in this case, English.
What we are going to do here is teach you to hear again. So many times, you've heard what a
native speaker said, translated it into your own accent, and repeated it with your accent. Why?
Because you "knew" how to say it.

Tense Vowels

Lax Vowels

Symbol Sound Spelling Example

Symbol

Sound

Spelling

Example

ā

εi

take

[tak]

ε

eh

get

[gεt]

ē

ee

eat

[et]

i

ih

it

[it]

ī

äi

ice

[is]

ü

ih + uh

took

[tük]

ō

ou

hope

[hop]

ə

uh

some

[səm]

ū

ooh

smooth

[smuth]

ä
æ

ah
ä+ε

caught
cat

[kät]
[kæt]

ər

er

her

[hər]

æo

æ+o

down

[dæon]

əl

ul

dull

[dəəl]

Semivowels

Exercise 1 -49: Tell Me Wədai Say!
19

CD 2 Track

The first thing you're going to do is write down exactly what I say. It will be nonsense to you for two
reasons: First, because I will be saying sound units, not word units. Second, because I will be
starting at the end of the sentence instead of the beginning. Listen carefully and write down exactly
what you hear, regardless of meaning. The first sound is given to you—cher.
CD 2
Track 20
46

‘
_

‘
_

_

_

‘

‘
_

_

_

_

_

V Once you have written it down, check with the version below.

‘

‘

‘

‘

‘
_

_

_

cher.

‘

mæn
är
diz
zuh temp
tu
wim pru vän
nay cher
V Read it out loud to yourself and try to hear what the regular English is. Don't look ahead until
you've figured out the sense of it.
Art is man 's attempt to improve on nature.
Frequently, people will mistakenly hear Are these... [är thez] instead of Art is... [är diz]. Not only are
the two pronunciations different, but the intonation and meaning would also be different:
Art is man 's attempt to improve on nature. Are these man 's attempts to improve on nature ?

Exercise 1-50: Listening for Pure Sounds
Again, listen carefully and write the sounds you hear. The answers are below.

CD 2 Track 21

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Exercise 1-51 : Extended Listening Practice

CD 2 Track 22

Let's do a few more pure sound exercises to fine-tune your ear. Remember, start at the end and fill in
the blanks right to left, then read them back left to right. Write whichever symbols are easiest for you
to read back. There are clues sprinkled around for you and all the answers are in the Answer Key,
beginning on page 193.
CD 2 Track 23

The Down Side of Intonation
Reduced sounds are all those extra sounds created by an absence of lip, tongue, jaw, and throat
movement. They are a principal function of intonation and are truly indicative of the American
sound.

Reduced Sounds Are "Valleys"
American intonation is made up of peaks and valleys—tops of staircases and bottoms of staircases.
To have strong peaks, you will have to develop deep valleys. These deep valleys should be filled
with all kinds of reduced vowels, one in particular—the completely neutral schwa. Ignore spelling.
Since you probably first became acquainted with English through the printed word, this is going to
be quite a challenge. The position of a syllable is more important than spelling as an indication of
correct pronunciation. For example, the words photograph and photography each have two O's and
an A. The first word is stressed on the first syllable so photograph sounds like [fod'græf]. The second
word is stressed on the second syllable, photography, so the word comes out [f'tahgr'fee]. You can
see here that their spelling doesn't tell you how they sound. Word stress or intonation will determine
the pronunciation. Work on listening to words. Concentrate on hearing the pure sounds, not in trying
to make the word fit a familiar spelling. Otherwise, you will be taking the long way around and
giving yourself both a lot of extra work and an accent!

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Syllables that are perched atop a peak or a staircase are strong sounds; that is, they maintain their
original pronunciation. On the other hand, syllables that fall in the valleys or on a lower stairstep are
weak sounds; thus they are reduced. Some vowels are reduced completely to schwas, a very relaxed
sound, while others are only toned down. In the following exercises, we will be dealing with these
"toned down" sounds.
In the Introduction ("Read This First," page iv) I talked about overpronouncing. This section will
handle that overpronunciation. You're going to skim over words; you're going to dash through
certain sounds. Your peaks are going to be quite strong, but your valleys, blurry—a very intuitive
aspect of intonation that this practice will help you develop.
Articles (such as the, a) are usually very reduced sounds. Before a consonant, the and a are both
schwa sounds, which are reduced. Before a vowel, however, you'll notice a change—the schwa of
the turns into a long [e] plus a connecting (y)—Th ' book changes to thee(y)only book; A hat becomes
a nugly hat. The article a becomes an. Think of [ə●nornj] rather than an orange; [ə●nopening],
[ə●neye], [ə●nimaginary animal].

Exercise 1-52; Reducing Articles
Consonants

CD 2 Track 25

Vowels

a girl

thee(y)apple

an orange [ə●nornj]

the best

a banana

thee(y)egg

an opening [ə●nop'ning]

the last one

a computer

thee(y)easy way

an interview [ə●ninerview]

the man

48

When you used the rubber band with [Däg zeet bounz] and when you built your own sentence,
you saw that intonation reduces the unstressed words. Intonation is the peak and reduced sounds
are the valleys. In the beginning, you should make extra-high peaks and long, deep valleys.
When you are not sure, reduce. In the following exercise, work with this idea. Small words such
as articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, relative pronouns, and auxiliary verbs are
lightly skimmed over and almost not pronounced.
You have seen how intonation changes the meaning in words and sentences. Inside a onesyllable word, it distinguishes between a final voiced or unvoiced consonant be-ed and bet.
Inside a longer word, éunuch vs unίque, the pronunciation and meaning change in terms of
vocabulary. In a sentence (He seems nice; He seems nice.), the meaning changes in terms of
intent.
In a sentence, intonation can also make a clear vowel sound disappear. When a vowel is stressed,
it has a certain sound; when it is not stressed, it usually sounds like uh, pronounced [ə]. Small
words like to, at, or as are usually not stressed, so the vowel disappears.

Exercise 1-53: Reduced Sounds

CD 2 Track 26

Read aloud from the right-hand column. The intonation is marked for you.

To
The preposition to
usually reduces so
much that it's like

Looks Like...
today
tonight
tomorrow
to work

Sounds Like...
[t'day]
[t'night]
[t'märou]
[t'wrk]

Стр. 57 из 185

dropping the vowel.
Use a t' or tə
sound to replace
to.

to school
to the store
We have to go now.
He went to work
They hope to find it.
I can't wait to find out.
We don't know what to do.
Don't jump to conclusions.
To be or not to be...
He didn't get to go.

[its thee(y)ounly weidə do
(w)'t]
So to speak...
[soda speak]
I don't know how to say it.
[äi don(t)know hæwdə say(y)
it]
Go to page 8.
[goudə pay jate]
Show me how to get it.
[show me hæodə geddit]
You need to know when to do [you nee(d)də nou wendə do
(w)it]
it.
Who's to blame?
[hooz də blame]
We're at home.
At
[wirət home]
At is just the
I'll see you at lunch.
[äiyəl see you(w)ət
opposite of to. It's a
lunch]

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small grunt followed Dinner's at five.
by a reduced [t].
Leave them at the door.
The meeting's at one.
He's at the post office.
They're at the bank.
I'm at school.

If at is followed by a I'll see you at eleven.
vowel sound, it will
become 'd or əd.
He's at a meeting.
She laughed at his idea.
One at a time
We got it at an auction.
The show started at eight.
The dog jumped out at us.
I was at a friend's house.

This is for you.
It's for my friend.
A table for four, please.
We planned it for later.
For example, for instance
What is this for?
What did you do it for?
Who did you get it for?
It's from the IRS.
I'm from Arkansas.
There's a call from Bob.
This letter's from Alaska!
Who's it from?
Where are you from?
It's in the bag.

What's in it?
I'll be back in a minute.
This movie? Who's in it?
Come in.
He's in America.
He's an American.
I got an A in English.
He got an F in Algebra.
He had an accident.
We want an orange.
He didn't have an excuse.
I'll be there in an instant.
It's an easy mistake to make.
ham and eggs
bread and butter
Coffee? With cream and sugar?
No, lemon and sugar.
... And some more cookies?
They kept going back and forth.
We watched it again and again.
He did it over and over.
We learned by trial and error.

It's a state of the art printer.
As a matter of fact, ...
Get out of here.
Practice all of the time.
Today's the first of May.
What's the name of that movie?
That's the best of all!
some of them
all of them
most of them
none of them
any of them
the rest of them

Would you like some more?
(or very casually)
Do you have some ice?
Do you have some mice?

[w' joo like s'more]
[jlike smore]
[dyü hæv səmice]
[dyü hæv səmice]

"You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." [yuk'n fool
səmə thə peepəl səmə thə time, b'choo kænt fool älləthə peepəl älləthə time]
54

Exercise 1-54: Intonation and Pronunciation of "That"

CD 2 Track 27

That is a special case because it serves three different grammatical functions. The relative
pronoun and the conjunction are reducible. The demonstrative pronoun cannot be reduced to a
schwa sound. It must stay [æ].

Relative Pronoun
Conjunction
Demonstrative
Combination

The car that she ordered is red.
He said that he liked it.
Why did you do that?
I know that he'll read that book
that I told you about.

Pause the CD and cross out any sound that is not clearly pronounced, including to, for, and,
that, than, the, a, the soft [i], and unstressed syllables that do not have strong vowel sounds.
Hello, my name is_________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to learn,
but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation
pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use the up
and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to
pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and
they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important
thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Pauses for Related Thoughts, Ideas, or for Breathing
By now you've begun developing a strong intonation, with clear peaks and reduced valleys, so
you're ready for the next step. You may find yourself reading the paragraph in Exercise 1-15 like
There
this:
HellomynameisSo-and-SoI'mtakingAmericanAccentTraining.
'salottolearnbutIhopetomakeitasenjoyableaspossible. If so, your audience won't completely

Стр. 63 из 185

comprehend or enjoy your presentation.
In addition to intonation, there is another aspect of speech that indicates meaning. This can be
called phrasing or tone. Have you ever caught just a snippet of a conversation in your own
language, and somehow known how to piece together what came before or after the part you
heard? This has to do with phrasing.
In a sentence, phrasing tells the listener where the speaker is at the moment, where the speaker is
going, and if the speaker is finished or not. Notice that the intonation stays on the nouns.

"Do dogs eat bones?" he asked.
Direct Speech
For clarity, break your sentences with pauses between natural word groups of related thoughts or
ideas. Of course, you will have to break at every comma and every period, but besides those
breaks, add other little pauses to let your listeners catch up with you or think over the last burst
of information and to allow you time to take a breath. Let's work on this technique. In doing the
following exercise, you should think of using breath groups and idea groups.
56

Exercise 1-58: Creating Word Groups
32

CD 2 Track

Break the paragraph into natural word groups. Mark every place where you think a pause is needed
with a slash.
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a
lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
Note In the beginning, your word groups should be very short. It'll be a sign of your growing
sophistication when they get longer.
+ Pause the CD to do your marking.

Exercise 1-59: Practicing Word Groups
33

CD 2 Track

When I read the paragraph this time, I will exaggerate the pauses. Although we're working on word
groups here, remember, I don't want you to lose your intonation. Repeat each sentence group after
me.

Hello, my name is ___________. | I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a

Стр. 64 из 185

lot to learn,| but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. | I should pick up on the
American intonation pattern pretty easily, although | the only way to get it is to
practice all of the time.| I use the up and down, or peaks and valleys intonatîon |
more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch, | too. Iťs like walking down a
staircase. | I've been talking to a lot of Americans | lately, and they tell me | that I'm
easier to understand. | Anyway, I could go on
and on, | but the important thing is to listen well | and sound good. Well, | what do
you think? Do I?
+ Next, back up the CD and practice the word groups three times using strong intonation. Then,
pause the CD and practice three more times on your own. When reading, your pauses should be
neither long nor dramatic — just enough to give your listener time to digest what you're saying.
57

Exercise 1-60: Tag Endings

CD 2 Track 34

Pause the CD and complete each sentence with a tag ending. Use the same verb, but with the
opposite polarity—positive becomes negative, and negative becomes positive. Then, repeat after me.
Check Answer Key, beginning on page 193.

Intonation
With a query, the intonation rises. With confirmation, the intonation drops.

The new clerk is very slow, isn't he!
But he can improve,
She doesn't type very well,
They lost their way,
You don't think so,
I don't think it's easy,
I'm your friend,
You won't be coming,

?
!
?
!
?
?
!
!

Стр. 65 из 185

9. He keeps the books,
?
10. We have to close the office,
?
11. We have closed the office,
!
12. We had to close the office,
?
13. We had the office closed,
?
14. We had already closed the office,
!
15. We'd better close the office,
?
16. We'd rather close the office,
?
17. The office has closed,
!
18. You couldn't tell,
?
19. You'll be working late tonight,
!
20. He should have been here by now,
!
21. He should be promoted,
?
22. I didn't send the fax,
?
23. I won't get a raise this year,
?
24. You use the computer.
!
25. You're used to the computer.
?
26. You used to use the computer,
?
27. You never used to work Saturdays,
!
28. That's better.
The basic techniques introduced in this chapter are pitch, stress, the staircase and musical notes,
reduced sounds, and word groups and phrasing. In chapters 2 through 13, we refine and expand
this knowledge to cover every sound of the American accent.
58

Chapter 2. Word Connections

CD 2 Track 35

As mentioned in the previous chapter, in American English, words are not pronounced one by
one. Usually, the end of one word attaches to the beginning of the next word. This is also true for
initials, numbers, and spelling. Part of the glue that connects sentences is an underlying hum or
drone that only breaks when you come to a period, and sometimes not even then. You have this
underlying hum in your own language and it helps a great deal toward making you sound like a
native speaker.
Once you have a strong intonation, you need to connect all those stairsteps together so that each
sentence sounds like one long word. This chapter is going to introduce you to the idea of
liaisons, the connections between words, which allow us to speak in sound groups rather than in
individual words. Just as we went over where to put an intonation, here you're going to learn
how to connect words. Once you understand and learn to use this technique, you can make the
important leap from this practice book to other materials and your own conversation.
To make it easier for you to read, liaisons are written like this: They tell me the dai measier.
(You've already encountered some liaisons in Exercises 1-38, 1-49, 1-53.) It could also be
written theytellmethedaimeasier, but it would be too hard to read.

Exercise 2-1 : Spelling and Pronunciation

CD 2 Track 36

Read the following sentences. The last two sentences should be pronounced exactly the same, no
matter how they are written. It is the sound that is important, not the spelling.
The dime.
The dime easier.
They tell me the dime easier.
They tell me the dime easier to understand.
They tell me that I'm easier to understand.

Liaison Rule 1 : Consonant / Vowel
Words are connected when a word ends in a consonant sound and the next word starts with a
vowel sound, including the semivowels W, Y, and R.

Exercise 2-2: Word Connections

CD 2 Track 37

My name is...

[my nay●miz]
because I've
[b'k'zäiv]
pick up on the American intonation
[pi●kə pän the(y)əmer'kə ninətənashən]
In the preceding example, the word name ends in a consonant sound [m] (the e is silent and
doesn't count), and is starts with a vowel sound [i], so naymiz just naturally flows together. In
because I've, the [z] sound at the end of because and the [äi] sound of I blend together smoothly.
When you say the last line [pi●kəpän the(y)əmer'kəninətənashən], you can feel each sound
pushing into the next.

Exercise 2-3: Spelling and Number Connections

CD 2 Track 38

You also use liaisons in spelling and numbers:
LA (Los Angeles)
[eh●lay]

902-5050

[nai●no●too fai●vo●fai●vo]

What's the Difference Between a Vowel and a Consonant?
In pronunciation, a consonant touches at some point in the mouth. Try saying [p] with your
mouth open—you can't do it because your lips must come together to make the [p] sound. A
vowel, on the other hand, doesn't touch anywhere. You can easily say [e] without any part of the
mouth, tongue, or lips coming into contact with any other part. This is why we are calling W, Y,
and R semivowels, or glides.

Exercise 2-4: Consonant / Vowel Liaison Practice

CD 2 Track 39

Pause the CD and reconnect the following words. On personal pronouns, it is common to drop the
H. See Answer Key, beginning on page 193. Repeat.
hold on
[hol don]
turn over
[tur nover]
tell her I miss her [tellerl misser]
1. read only _______________________
2. fall off _______________________
60

Liaison Rule 2: Consonant / Consonant
Words are connected when a word ends in a consonant sound and the next word starts with a
consonant that is in a similar position. What is a similar position? Let's find out.

Exercise 2-5: Consonant /Consonant Liaisons

CD 2 Track 40

Say the sound of each group of letters out loud (the sound of the letter, not the name: [b] is [buh] not
[bee]). There are three general locations—the lips, behind the teeth, or in the throat. If a word ends
with a sound created in the throat and the next word starts with a sound from that same general
location, these words are going to be linked together. The same with the other two locations. Repeat
after me.

Behind the
teeth
unvoiced voiced

t
ch
—
—
s
sh
—

d
j
1
n
z
zh

y

At the lips
unvoiced voiced

p
f
—
—

b
v

m
w

In the throat
unvoiced

voiced

k
h
—
—

g
—

ng
r

61

Exercise 2-6: Consonant / Consonant Liaisons
I just didn't get the chance.
[I'vbinla(t)twice.]

CD 2 Track 41

[I·jusdidn't·ge(t)the·chance.] I've been late twice.

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In the preceding examples you can see that because the ending [st] of just and the beginning [d]
of didn't are so near each other in the mouth, it's not worth the effort to start the sound all over
again, so they just flow into each other. You don't say I justə didn 'tə getə the chance, but do say
Ijusdidn't ge(t)the chance. In the same way, it's too much work to say I'və beenə lateə twice, so
you say it almost as if it were a single word, I'vbinla(t)twice.
The sound of TH is a special case. It is a floater between areas. The sound is sometimes created
by the tongue popping out from between the teeth and other times on the back of the top teeth,
combining with various letters to form a new composite sound. For instance, [s] moves forward
and the [th] moves back to meet at the mid-point between the two.
Note Each of the categories in the drawing contains two labels—voiced and unvoiced. What does
that mean ? Put your thumb and index fingers on your throat and say [z]; you should feel a vibration
from your throat in your fingers. If you whisper that same sound, you end up with [s] and you feel
that your fingers don't vibrate. So, [z] is a voiced sound, [s], unvoiced. The consonants in the two
left columns are paired like that.

Consonants
Voiced

Unvoiced

Voiced

b

p

d

t

i

v
g

f
k

r
m

i

ch

n

z

s

ng

th

th

y

zh

sh

w

Unvoiced

h

62

Exercise 2-7: Liaisons with TH Combination

CD 2 Track 42

When the TH combination connects with certain sounds, the two sounds blend together to form a
composite sound. In the following examples, see how the TH moves back and the L moves forward,
to meet in a new middle position. Repeat after me.
th + ch both charges
th
+ 1 with lemon
th + j with juice
th
+ n with nachos
both
times
th
+ t
n + th in the
th
+ d with delivery
z + th was that
th
+ s both sizes
z
with
zeal
d + th hid those
th
+

Exercise 2-8: Consonant / Consonant Liaison Practice

CD 2 Track 43

Pause the CD and reconnect the following words as shown in the models. Check Answer Key,
beginning on page 193. Repeat.
hard times
[hardtimes]
with luck
[withluck]
1. business deal _________________________
2. credit check _________________________
3. the top file _________________________
4. sell nine new cars_________________________

Liaison Rule 3: Vowel / Vowel
When a word ending in a vowel sound is next to one beginning with a vowel sound, they are
connected with a glide between the two vowels. A glide is either a slight [y] sound or a slight [w]
sound. How do you know which one to use? This will take care of itself—the position your lips
are in will dictate either [y] or [w].
Go away.
Go(w)away.
I also need the other one.
I(y)also need thee(y)other one.
For example, if a word ends in [o] your lips are going to be in the forward position, so a [w]
quite naturally leads into the next vowel sound—[Go(w)away]. You don't want to say
63

Go...away and break the undercurrent of your voice. Run it all together: [Go(w)away].
After a long [ē] sound, your lips will be pulled back far enough to create a [y] glide or liaison: [I
(y)also need the(y)other one]. Don't force this sound too much, though. It's not a strong pushing
sound. [I(y) also need the(y)other one] would sound really weird.

Exercise 2-9: Vowel / Vowel Liaison Practice
44

CD 2 Track

Pause the CD and reconnect the following words as shown in the models. Add a (y) glide after an [e]
sound, and a (w) glide after an [u] sound. Don't forget that the sound of the American O is really
[ou]. Check Answer Key, beginning on page 193.
she isn't [she(y)isn't] who is [who(w)iz]
1. go anywhere
_______________
2. so honest
_______________
3. through our
_______________
4. you are
_______________
5. he is
_______________
6. do I?
_______________
7. I asked
_______________
8. to open
_______________
9. she always
_______________
10. too often
_______________

Liaison Rule 4: T, D, S, or Z + Y
When the letter or sound of T, D, S, or Z is followed by a word that starts with Y, or its sound,
both sounds are connected. These letters and sounds connect not only with Y, but they do so as
well with the initial unwritten [y].

Exercise 2-10; T, D, S, or Z + Y Liaisons
Repeat the following.

T + Y = CH

What's your name?
Can't you do it?
Actually
Don't you like it?

[wəcher name]
[kænt chew do(w)it]
[æk·chully]
[dont chew lye kit]

CD 2 Track 45

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Wouldn't you?
Haven't you? No, not yet.
I'll let you know.
Can I get you a drink?

Did you see it?
How did you like it?
Could you tell?
Where did you send your check?
What did your family think?
Did you find your keys?
We followed your instructions.
Congratulations!
education
individual
graduation
gradual

Now that you have the idea of how to link words, let's do some liaison work.
66

Exercise 2-12; Finding Liaisons and Glides

CD 2 Track 47

In the following paragraph connect as many of the words as possible. Mark your liaisons as we have
done in the first two sentences. Add the (y) and (w) glides between vowels.
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to
learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the(y)only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to(w)a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
V Practice reading the paragraph three times, focusing on running your words together.
+ Turn the CD back on and repeat after me as I read. I'm going to exaggerate the linking of the
words, drawing it out much longer than would be natural.

T Use these techniques on texts of your own and in conversation.
(1) Take some written material and mark the intonation, then the word groups, and finally the
liaisons.
(2) Practice saying it out loud.
(3) Record yourself and listen back.
V In conversation, think which word you want to make stand out, and change your pitch on that
word. Then, run the in-between words together in the valleys. Listen carefully to how Americans do
it and copy the sound.

Exercise 2-15: Colloquial Reductions and Liaisons

CD 3 Track 3

In order for you to recognize these sounds when used by native speakers, they are presented here,
but I don't recommend that you go out of your way to use them yourself. If, at some point, they come
quite naturally of their own accord in casual conversation, you don't need to resist, but please don't
force yourself to talk this way. Repeat.
I have got to go.
I've gotta go.
I've gotta book.
I have got a book.
Do you want to dance?
Wanna dance?
Do you want a banana?
Wanna banana?
Let me in.
Lemme in.
Let me go.
Lemme go.
I'll let you know.
I'll letcha know.
Did you do it?
Dija do it?
Not yet.
Nä chet.
I'll meet you later.
I'll meechu layder.
What do you think?
Whaddyu think?
What did you do with it?
Whajoo do with it?
How did you like it?
Howja like it?
When did you get it?
When ju geddit?
Why did you take it?
Whyju tay kit?
Why don't you try it?
Why don chu try it?
What are you waiting for?
Whaddya waitin' for?
What are you doing?
Whatcha doin'?
How is it going?
Howzit going?
Where's the what-you-may-call-it?
Where's the whatchamacallit?
Where's what-is-his-name?
Where's whatsizname?
How about it?
How 'bout it?
He has got to hurry because he is late. He's gotta hurry 'cuz he's late.
I could've been a contender.
I coulda bina contender.
68

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Exercise 2-15: Colloquial Reductions and Liaisons continued CD 3 Track 3
Could you speed it up, please?
Would you mind if I tried it?
Aren't you Bob Barker?
Can't you see it my way for a change?
Don't you get it?
I should have told you.
Tell her (that) I miss her.
Tell him (that) I miss him.
Did you eat?
No, did you?
Why don't you get a job?
I don't know, it's too hard.
Could we go?
Let's go!

Spoon or Sboon?
An interesting thing about liaisons is that so much of it has to do with whether a consonant is
voiced or not. The key thing to remember is that the vocal cords don't like switching around at
the midpoint. If the first consonant is voiced, the next one will be as well. If the first one is
unvoiced, the second one will sound unvoiced, no matter what you do. For example, say the
word spoon. Now, say the word sboon. Hear how they sound the same? This is why I'd like you
to always convert the preposition to to də when you're speaking English, no matter what comes
before it. In the beginning, to get you used to the concept, we made a distinction between tə and
də, but now that your schwa is in place, use a single d' sound everywhere, except at the very
beginning of a sentence.
After a voiced sound:
After an unvoiced sound:
At the beginning of a sentence:

He had to do it.
He got to do it.
To be or not to be.

[he hæ(d)d' du(w)'t]
[he gä(t)d' du(w)'t]
[t' bee(y)r nä(t)d'bee]

To have your liaisons tested, call (800) 457-4255.
69

Exercise 2-16: Liaison Staircases

CD 3 Track 4

You are going to make staircases again from me paragraph below—pretty much as you did in
Exercise 1-17 on page 16. This time, instead of putting a whole word on each stairstep, put a single
sound on each step. This is also similar to the second pan of the Dogs Eat Bones Exercise 1-38 on
page 36. Use the liaison techniques you have just learned to connect the words; then regroup them
and place one sound unit on a step. As before, start a new staircase every time you stress a word.
Remember, new sentences don't have to start new staircases. A staircase can continue from one
sentence to another until you come to a stressed word. Pause the CD.

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Note The liaison practice presented in this chapter was the last of the basic principles you needed to
know before tackling the finer points of pronunciation introduced in the next.
70

Chapter 3. Cat? Caught? Cut?

CD 3 Track 5

After laying our foundation with intonation and liaisons, here we finally begin to refine your
pronunciation! We are now going to work on the differences between [æ], [ä], and [ə], as well as
[ō], [ā], and [ē]. Let's start out with the [æ] sound.

The [æ] Sound
Although not a common sound, [æ] is very distinctive to the ear and is typically American. In the
practice paragraph in Exercise 3-2 this sound occurs five times. As its phonetic symbol indicates,
[æ] is a combination of [ä] + [ε]. To pronounce it, drop your jaw down as if you were going to
say [ä]; then from that position, try to say [ε]. The final sound is not two separate vowels, but
rather the end result of the combination. It is very close to the sound that a goat makes: ma-a-aa!
Y Try it a few times now: [ä] f [æ]
If you find yourself getting too nasal with [æ], pinch your nose as you say it. If [kæt] turns into
[kεæt], you need to pull the sound out of your nose and down into your throat.

Note As you look for the [œ] sound you might think that words like down or sound have an [œ] in
them. For this diphthong, try [œ] + oh, or [œo]. This way, down would be written [dœon]. Because
it is a combined sound, however, it's not included in the Cat? category. (See Pronunciation Point 4
on page ix).

The [ä] Sound
The [ä] sound occurs a little more frequently; you will find ten such sounds in the exercise. To
pronounce [ä], relax your tongue and drop your jaw as far down as it will go. As a matter of fact,
put your hand under your chin and say [mä], [pä], [tä], [sä]. Your hand should be pushed down
by your jaw as it opens. Remember, it's the sound that you make when the
71

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doctor wants to see your throat, so open it up and dräp your jäw.

The Schwa [ə] Sound
Last is the schwa [ə], the most common sound in American English. When you work on Exercise
3-2, depending on how fast you speak, how smoothly you make liaisons, how strong your
intonation is, and how much you relax your sounds, you will find from 50 to 75 schwas. Spelling
doesn't help identify it, because it can appear as any one of the vowels, or a combination of them.
It is a neutral vowel sound, uh. It is usually in an unstressed syllable, though it can be stressed as
well. Whenever you find a vowel that can be crossed out and its absence wouldn't change the
pronunciation of the word, you have probably found a schwa: photography [ph'togr'phy] (the
two apostrophes show the location of the neutral vowel sounds).
Because it is so common, however, the wrong pronunciation of this one little sound can leave
your speech strongly accented, even if you Americanized everything else.
but for simplicity, we are
Note Some dictionaries use two different written characters, [ə] and
only going to use the first one.

Silent or Neutral?
A schwa is neutral, but it is not silent. By comparison, the silent E at the end of a word is a signal
for pronunciation, but it is not pronounced itself: code is [kod]. The E tells you to say an [o]. If
you leave the E off, you have cod, [käd]. The schwa, on the other hand is neutral, but it is an
actual sound—uh. For example, you could also write photography as phuh•tah•gruh•fee.
Because it's a neutral sound, the schwa doesn't have any distinctive characteristics, yet it is the
most common sound in the English language.
To make the [ə] sound, put your hand on your diaphragm and push until a grunt escapes. Don't
move your jaw, tongue, or lips; just allow the sound to flow past your vocal cords. It should
sound like uh.
Once you master this sound, you will have an even easier time with pronouncing can and can't.
In a sentence, can't sounds like [kæn(t)], but can becomes [kən], unless it is stressed, when it is
[kæn], (as we saw in Exercise 1-43 on p. 41). Repeat.
I can do it.
[I kən do it]
I can't do it. [I kæn't do it]
72

In the vowel chart that follows, the four corners represent the four most extreme positions of the
mouth. The center box represents the least extreme position—the neutral schwa. For these four
positions, only move your lips and jaw. Your tongue should stay in the same place—with the tip
resting behind the bottom teeth.

Vowel Chart

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1. To pronounce beat, your lips should be drawn back, but your teeth should be close together.
Your mouth should form the shape of a banana.
2. To pronounce boot, your lips should be fully rounded, and your teeth should be close
together. Your mouth should form the shape of a Cheerio.
3. To pronounce bought, drop your jaw straight down from the boot position. Your mouth
should form the shape of an egg.
4. To pronounce bat, keep your jaw down, pull your lips back, and try to simultaneously say [ä]
and [ε]. Your mouth should form the shape of a box.
Note Word-by-word pronunciation will be different than individual sounds within a sentence. That,
than, as, at, and, have, had, can, and so on, are [æ] sounds when they stand alone, but they are weak
words that reduce quickly in speech.
73

Exercise 3-1 : Word-by-Word and in a Sentence
6
Stressed
Unstressed
that
than
as
at
and
have
had
can

thæt
thæn
æz
æt
ænd
hæv
hæd
cæn

th't
th'n
'z
't
'n
h'v
h'd
c'n

thət
thən
əz
ət
ən
həv
həd
cən

CD 3 Track

He said th't it's OK.
It's bigger th'n before
'z soon 'z he gets here...
Look ' t the time!
ham 'n eggs
Where h'v you been?
He h'd been at home.
C'n you do it?

Exercise 3-2: Finding [æ], [ä], and [ə] Sounds

CD 3 Track 7

There are five [æ], ten [ä], and seventy-five [ə] sounds in the following paragraph. Underscore them
in pen or pencil. (The first one of each sound is marked for you.)
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking əmerəcən æccent Training. There's a
lät to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
V Next, check your answers with the Answer Key, beginning on page 193. Finally, take your
markers and give a color to each sound. For example, mark [æ] green, [ä] blue, and [ə] yellow.

Стр. 77 из 185

X Turn your CD off and read the paragraph three times on your own.
Note It sounds regional to end a sentence with [ustə]. In the middle of a sentence, however, it is
more standard: [I ustə live there.]
74

A fashionably tan man sat casually at the bat stand, lashing a handful of practice bats. The
manager, a crabby old bag of bones, passed by and laughed, "You're about average, Jack. Can't
you lash faster than that?" Jack had had enough, so he clambered to his feet and lashed bats
faster than any man had ever lashed bats. As a matter of fact, he lashed bats so fast that he
seemed to dance. The manager was aghast. "Jack, you're a master bat lasher!" he gasped.
Satisfied at last, Jack sat back and never lashed another bat.

X Pause the CD and read The Tæn Mæn aloud. Turn it back on to continue.

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Exercise 3-5: Reading the [ä] Sound
A Lät of Läng, Hät Walks in the Garden

CD strack 10

Exercise 3-6: Reading the [ə] Sound

CD 3 Track 11

John was not sorry when the boss called off the walks in the garden. Obviously, to him, it was
awfully hot, and the walks were far too long. He had not thought that walking would have caught
on the way it did, and he fought the policy from the onset. At first, he thought he could talk it
over at the law office and have it quashed, but a small obstacle* halted that thought. The top
lawyers always bought coffee at the shop across the lawn and they didn't want to stop on John's
account. John's problem was not office politics, but office policy. He resolved the problem by
bombing the garden.
* lobster • a small lobster • lobstacle • a small obstacle
* Pause the CD and read A Lät of Läng, Hät Wälks in the Gärden aloud.
When you read the following schwa paragraph, try clenching your teeth the first time. It won't
sound completely natural, but it will get rid of all of the excess lip and jaw movement and force
your tongue to work harder than usual. Remember that in speaking American English we don't
move our lips much, and we talk though our teeth from far back in our throats. I'm going to read
with my teeth clenched together and you follow along, holding your teeth together.

What Must the Sun Above Wonder About?

Some pundits proposed that the sun wonders unnecessarily about sundry and assorted conundrums. One cannot but speculate what can come of their proposal. It wasn't enough to trouble
us,* but it was done so underhandedly that hundreds of sun lovers rushed to the defense of their
beloved sun. None of this was relevant on Monday, however, when the sun burned up the entire
country. *[ət wəzənənəf tə trəbələs]
* Pause the CD and read What Must the Sun Above Wonder About? twice. Try it once with your
teeth clenched the first time and normally the second time.
76

Chapter 4. The American T

CD 3 Track 12

The American T is influenced very strongly by intonation and its position in a word or phrase. At
the top of a staircase T is pronounced T as in Ted or Italian; a T in the middle of a staircase is
pronounced as D [Beddy] [Idaly] ; whereas a T at the bottom of a staircase isn't pronounced at all
[ho(t)]. Look at Italian and Italy in the examples below. The [tæl] of Italian is at the top of the
staircase and is strong: Italian. The [də] of Italy is in the middle and is weak: Italy.

Exercise 4-1 ; Stressed and Unstressed T

CD 3 Thick 13

Repeat after me.

Italian
attack
atomic
photography

Italy
attic
atom
photograph

Exercise 4-2: Betty Bought a Bit of Better Butter

CD 3 Track 14

In the sentence Betty bought a bit of better butter, all of the Ts are in weak positions, so they all
sound like soft Ds. Repeat the sentence slowly, word by word: [Beddy ... badə... bidə... bedder ...
budder]. Feel the tip of your tongue flick across that area behind your top teeth. Think of the music
of a cello again when you say, Betty bought a bit of better butter.

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Betty Bought a Bit of Better Butter

Betty bought a bit of better butter, Beddy bä də bihda bedder budder.
But, said she,
Bu(t), said she,
This butter's bitter.
This budder' z bidder.
If I put it in my batter,
If I püdi din my bædder,
It'll make my batter bitter.
Id'll make my bædder bidder.
If you speak any language—such as Spanish, Japanese, Hindi, Italian, or Dutch, among others—
where your R touches behind the teeth, you are in luck with the American T. Just fix the
association in your mind so that when you see a middle position T, you automatically give it
your native R sound. Say, Beri bara bira ... with your native accent. (Not if you are
77

French, German, or Chinese!)
Along with liaisons, the American T contributes a great deal to the smooth, relaxed sound of
English. When you say a word like atom, imagine that you've been to the dentist and you're a
little numb, or that you've had a couple of drinks, or maybe that you're very sleepy. You won't be
wanting to use a lot of energy saying [æ•tom], so just relax everything and say [adəm], like the
masculine name, Adam. It's a very smooth, fluid sound. Rather than saying, BeTTy boughT a biT
of beTTer buTTer, which is physically more demanding, try, Beddy bada bidda bedder budder.
It's easy because you really don't need much muscle tension to say it this way.
The staircase concept will help clarify the various T sounds. The American T can be a little
tricky if you base your pronunciation on spelling. Here are five rules to guide you.
1. T is T at the beginning of a word or in a stressed syllable.
2. T is D in the middle of a word.
3. T is Held at the end of a word.
4. T is Held before N in -tain and -ten endings.
5. T is Silent after N with lax vowels.

Read the following sentences out loud. Make sure that the underlined (stressed) Ts are sharp and
clear.
1. It took Tim ten times to try the telephone.
2. Stop touching Ted's toes.
3. Turn toward Stella and study her contract together.
4. Control your tears.
5. It's Tommy's turn to tell the teacher the truth.

Exercise 4-4: Rule 2—Middle of the Staircase

CD 3 Track 16

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An unstressed T in the middle of a staircase between two vowel sounds should be pronounced as a
soft D.
Betty bought a bit of better butter.
[Beddy bädə bida bedder budder]
Pat ought to sit on a lap.
[pædädə sidänə læp]
Read the following sentences out loud. Make sure that the underlined (unstressed) Ts sound like a
soft D.
1. What a good idea.
[wədə gudai deeyə]
2. Put it in a bottle.
[püdidinə bäddl]
3. Write it in a letter.
[räididinə leddr]
4. Set it on the metal gutter.
[sedidän thə medl gəddr]
5. Put all the data in the computer.
[püdäl the deidə in the c'mpyudr]
[inserdə kworder in the meedr]
6. Insert a quarter in the meter.
7. Get a better water heater.
[gedə beddr wädr heedr]
[ledr püdə sweder an]
8. Let her put a sweater on.
[beddy's ædə meeding]
9. Betty's at a meeting.
It's
getting
hotter
and
hotter.
[its gedding häddr•rən häddr]
10.
11. Patty ought to write a better letter.
[pæddy(y)ädə ride a beddr leddr]
12. Freida had a little metal bottle.
[freedə hædə liddl medl bäddl]

Exercise 4-5: Rule 3—Bottom of the Staircase

CD3 Track 17

T at the bottom of a staircase is in the held position. By held, I mean that the tongue is in the T
position, but the air isn't released. To compare, when you say T as in Tom, there 's a sharp burst of
air over the tip of the tongue, and when you say Betty, there 's a soft puff of air over the tip of the
tongue. When you hold a T, as in hot, your tongue is in the position for T, but you keep the air in.
1. She hit the hot hut with her hat.
2. We went to that 'Net site to get what we needed.
3. Pat was quite right, wasn't she?
79

The "held T" is, strictly speaking, not really a T at all. Remember [t] and [n] are very close in the
mouth (see Liaisons, Exercise 2-5). If you have an N immediately after a T, you don't pop the T—the
tongue is in the T position—but you release the air with the N, not the T. There is no [t] and no [ə].
Make a special point of not letting your tongue release from the top of your mouth before you drop
into the [n]; otherwise, bu(tt)on would sound like two words: but-ton. An unstressed T or TT
followed by N is held. Read the following words and sentences out loud. Make sure that the
underlined Ts are held. Remember, there is no "uh" sound before the [n].
Note Another point to remember is that you need a sharp upward sliding intonation up to the "held
T," then a quick drop for the N.

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written
ri(t)n

written
kitten
sentence
patent
forgotten
mutant
sentence
certain
latent
(t)
curtain
mountain
sen ns
mitten
recently
lately
Martin
lately
(t)
bitten
partly
la lee
button
frequently
1. He's forgotten the carton of satin mittens.
2. She's certain that he has written it.
3. The cotton curtain is not in the fountain.
4. The hikers went in the mountains.
5. Martin has gotten a kitten.
6. Students study Latin in Britain.
7. Whitney has a patent on those sentences.
8. He has not forgotten what was written about the mutant on the mountain.
9. It's not certain that it was gotten from the fountain.
10. You need to put an orange cotton curtain on that window.
11. We like that certain satin better than the carton of cotton curtains.
12. The intercontinental hotel is in Seattle.
13. The frightened witness had forgotten the important written message.
14. The child wasn't beaten because he had bitten the button.
80

Exercise 4-10: Combinations in Context
Repeat the following sentences.
1. I don't know what it means.
2. But it looks like what I need.
3. But you said that you wouldn't.
4. I know what you think.
5. But I don't think that he will.
6. He said that if we can do it, he'll help.
7. But isn't it easier this way?

We want something that isn't here.
You'll like it, but you'll regret it later.
But he's not right for what I want.
It's amazing what you've accomplished.
What if he forgets?
OK, but aren't you missing something?
I think that he's OK now.
She wanted to, but her car broke down.
We think that you're taking a chance.
They don't know what it's about.

Exercise 4-11 : Voiced and Unvoiced Sounds with T
This exercise is for the practice of the difference between words that end in either a vowel or a
voiced consonant, which means that the vowel is lengthened or doubled. Therefore, these words are
on a much larger, longer stairstep. Words that end in an unvoiced consonant are on a smaller,
shorter stairstep. This occurs whether the vowel in question is tense or lax.

har
H

hard

heart

car

card
C

cart

ha!
har
hall
her
hole
hoe

hod
hard
hailed
heard
hold
hoed

hot
heart
halt
hurt
holt

caw
car
call

cod
card
called
curd
cold
code

cot/caught

cur

coal
co-

cart
curt

colt
coat

Exercise 4-12: Finding American T Sounds CD 3 Track 24
Once again, go over the following familiar paragraph. First, find all the T's that are pronounced D
(there are nine to thirteen here). Second, find all the held Ts (there are seven). The first one of each
is marked for you. Pause the CD to do this and don't forget to check your answers with the Answer
Key, beginning on page 193, when you finish.
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accen(t) Training. There's a
lo(t) to learn, butd I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good/Well, what do you think? Do I?
83

Voiced Consonants and Reduced Vowels

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The strong intonation in American English creates certain tendencies in your spoken language.
Here are four consistent conditions that are a result of intonation's tense peaks and relaxed
valleys:

1. Reduced vowels

You were introduced to reduced vowels in Chapter 1. They appear in the valleys that are formed
by the strong peaks of intonation. The more you reduce the words in the valleys, the smoother
and more natural your speech will sound. A characteristic of reduced vowels is that your throat
muscles should be very relaxed. This will allow the unstressed vowels to reduce toward the
schwa. Neutral vowels take less energy and muscularity to produce than tense vowels. For
example, the word unbelievable should only have one hard vowel: [ənbəlēvəbəl].

2. Voiced consonants

The mouth muscles are relaxed to create a voiced sound like [z] or [d]. For unvoiced consonants,
such as [s] or [t], they are sharp and tense. Relaxing your muscles will simultaneously reduce
your vowels and voice your consonants. Think of voiced consonants as reduced consonants.
Both reduced consonants and reduced vowels are unconsciously preferred by a native speaker of
American English. This explains why T so frequently becomes D and S becomes Z: Get it is
to ... [gedidizdə].

3. Like sound with like sound

It's not easy to change horses midstream, so when you have a voiced consonant; let the
consonant that follows it be voiced as well. In the verb used [yuzd], for example, the S is really a
Z, so it is followed by D. The phrase used to [yus tu], on the other hand, has a real S, so it is
followed by T. Vowels are, by definition, voiced. So when one is followed by a common,
reducible word, it will change that word's first sound— like the preposition to, which will change
to [də].
The only way to get it is to practice all of the time.
[They only wei•də•geddidiz•də•practice all of the time.]
Again, this will take time. In the beginning, work on recognizing these patterns when you hear
them. When you are confident that you understand the structure beneath these sounds and you
can intuit where they belong, you can start to try them out. It's not advisable to memorize one
reduced word and stick it into an otherwise overpronounced sentence. It would sound strange.

4. R'lææææææææææx

You've probably noticed that the preceding three conditions, as well as other areas that we've
covered, such as liaisons and the schwa, have one thing in common—the idea that it's physically
easier this way. This is one of the most remarkable characteristics of American English. You
need to relax your mouth and throat muscles (except for [æ], [ä], and other tense vowels), and let
the sounds flow smoothly out. If you find yourself tensing up, pursing your lips, or tightening
your throat, you are going to strangle and lose the sound you are pursuing. Relax, relax, relax.
84

Chapter 5. The El

CD 3 Track 25

This chapter discusses the sound of L (not to be confused with that of the American R, which is
covered in the next chapter). We'll approach this sound first, by touching on the difficulties it
presents to foreign speakers of English, and next by comparing L to the related sounds of T, D,
and N.

L and Foreign Speakers of English
The English L is usually no problem at the beginning or in the middle of a word. The native
language of some people, however, causes them to make their English L much too short. At the
end of a word, the L is especially noticeable if it is either missing (Chinese) or too short
(Spanish). In addition, most people consider the L as a simple consonant. This can also cause a
lot of trouble. Thus, two things are at work here: location of language sounds in the mouth, and
the complexity of the L sound. ,

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Location of Language in the Mouth
The sounds of many Romance languages are generally located far forward in the mouth. My
French teacher told me that if I couldn't see my lips when I spoke French—it wasn't French!
Spanish is sometimes even called the smiling language. Chinese, on the other hand, is similar to
American English in that it is mostly produced far back in the mouth. The principal difference is
that English also requires clear use of the tongue's tip, a large component of the sound of L.

The Compound Sound of L
The L is not a simple consonant; it is a compound made up of a vowel and a consonant. Like the
[æ] sound discussed in Chapter 3, the sound of L is a combination of [ə] and [1]. The [ə], being a
reduced vowel sound, is created in the throat, but the [1] part requires a clear movement of the
tongue. First, the tip must touch behind the teeth. (This part is simple enough.) But then, the back
of the tongue must then drop down and back for the continuing schwa sound. Especially at the
end of a word, Spanish-speaking people tend to leave out the schwa and shorten the L, and
Chinese speakers usually leave it off entirely.
One way to avoid the pronunciation difficulty of a final L, as in call, is to make a liaison when
the next word begins with a vowel. For example, if you want to say I have to call on my friend,
let the liaison do your work for you; say [I have to kälän my friend].
85

L Compared with T, D, and N
When you learn to pronounce the L correctly, you will feel its similarity with T, D, and N.
Actually, the tongue is positioned in the same place in the mouth for all four sounds— behind
the teeth. The difference is in how and where the air comes out. (See the drawings in Exercise 51.)

T and D
The sound of both T and D is produced by allowing a puff of air to come out over the tip of the
tongue.

N

The sound of N is nasal. The tongue completely blocks all air from leaving through the mouth,
allowing it to come out only through the nose. You should be able to feel the edges of your
tongue touching your teeth when you say nnn.
With L, the tip of the tongue is securely touching the roof of the mouth behind the teeth, but the
sides of the tongue are dropped down and tensed. This is where L is different from N. With N,
the tongue is relaxed and covers the entire area around the back of the teeth so that no air can
come out. With L, the tongue is very tense, and the air comes out around its sides. At the
beginning it's helpful to exaggerate the position of the tongue. Look at yourself in the mirror as
you stick out the tip of your tongue between your front teeth. With your tongue in this position
say el several times. Then, try saying it with your tongue behind your teeth. This sounds
complicated, but it is easier to do than to describe. You can practice this again later with
Exercise 5-3. Our first exercise, however, must focus on differentiating the sounds.

Exercise 5-1 : Sounds Comparing L with T, D, and N

CD 3 Track 26

For this exercise, concentrate on the different ways in which the air comes out of the mouth when
producing each sound of L, T, D, and N. Look at the drawings included here, to see the correct
position of the tongue. Instructions for reading the groups of words listed next are given after the
words.

T/D Plosive

A puff of air comes out over the tip of the tongue. The tongue is somewhat tense.

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86

Exercise 5-1 ; Sounds Comparing L with T, D and N continued

CD 3 Track 26

N
Nasal
Air comes out through the nose. The tongue is completely relaxed.

L
Lateral
Air flows around the sides of the tongue. The tongue is very tense. The lips are not rounded!

1.

At the beginning of a word
law
gnaw
low
know
lee knee tea

taw
toe
D

daw
dough

2. In the middle of a word
belly
caller

Benny
Conner

Betty
cotter

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alley

Annie's

at ease

3. At the end of a word
hold
hone hoed
A hole
call

called

con

cod

B fill

full

fool fail

fell

feel

fuel furl

Exercise 5-2; Sounds Comparing L with T, D, and N

CD 3 Track 27

Repeat after me, first down and then across.
87

T Look at group 3, B. This exercise has three functions:
1. Practice final els.
2. Review vowels sounds.
3. Review the same words with the staircase.
Note Notice that each word has a tiny schwa after the el. This is to encourage your tongue to be in
the right position to give your words a "finished" sound. Exaggerate the final el and its otherwise
inaudible schwa.
Y Repeat the last group of words.
Once you are comfortable with your tongue in this position, let it just languish there while you
continue vocalizing, which is what a native speaker does.
V Repeat again: fillll, fullll, foollll, faillll, feellll, fuellll, furllll.

What Are All Those Extra Sounds I'm Hearing?
I hope that you're asking a question like this about now. Putting all of those short little words on
a staircase will reveal exactly how many extra sounds you have to put in to make it "sound
right." For example, if you were to pronounce fail as [fal], the sound is too abbreviated for the
American ear—we need to hear the full [fayələ].

Exercise 5-3: Final El with Schwa
28

CD 3 Track

Repeat after me.

88

Exercise 5-4: Many Final Els
This time, simply hold the L sound extra long. Repeat after me.

CD 3 Track 29

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Exercise 5-5: Liaise the Ls

CD 3 Track 30

As you work with the following exercise, here are two points you should keep in mind. When a word
ends with an L sound, either (a) connect it to the next word if you can, or (b) add a slight schwa for

an exaggerated [lə] sound. For example:
(a) enjoyable as [enjoyəbələz]
(b) possible
[pasəbələ]
Note Although (a) is really the way you want to say it, (b) is an interim measure to help you put your
tongue in the right place. It would sound strange if you were to always add the slight schwa. Once
you can feel where you want your tongue to be, hold it there while you continue to make the L sound.
Here are three examples:

Call

caw
[kä]
(incorrect)
call
[cälə]
(understandable)
call
[källl] (correct)
You can do the same thing to stop an N from becoming an NG.

Con
cong
con
con

[käng]
[känə]
[kännn]

(incorrect)
(understandable)
(correct)

89

Exercise 5-6: Finding L Sounds

CD 3 Track 31

Pause the CD, and find and mark all the L sounds in the familiar paragraph below; the first one is
marked for you. There are seventeen of them; five are silent. Afterwards, check Answer Key,
beginning on page 193.
Hello, my name is______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to
learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation
pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use the up and
down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell
me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to
listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 5-7: Silent Ls

CD3Track32

Once you've found all the L sounds, the good news is that very often you don't even have to
pronounce them. Read the following list of words after me.
1. would
could
should
2. chalk
talk
walk

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3. calm
palm
psalm
4. already
alright
almond
5. although almost
always
6. salmon
alms
Albany
7. folk
caulk
polka
Before reading about Little Lola in the next exercise, I'm going to get off the specific subject of
L for the moment to talk about learning in general. Frequently, when you have some difficult
task to do, you either avoid it or do it with dread. I'd like you to take the opposite point of view.
For this exercise, you're going to completely focus on the thing that's most difficult: leaving your
tongue attached to the top of your mouth. And rather than saying, "Oh, here comes an L, I'd
better do something with my tongue," just leave your tongue attached all through the entire
paragraph!
Remember our clenched-teeth reading of What Must the Sun Above Wonder About?, in
Chapter 3? Well, it's time for us to make weird sounds again.
90

Exercise 5-8: Hold Your Tongue!

CD 3 Track 33

You and I are going to read with our tongues firmly held at the roofs of our mouths. If you want,
hold a clean dime there with the tongue's tip; the dime will let you know when you have dropped
your tongue because it will fall out. (Do not use candy; it will hold itself there since wet candy is
sticky.) If you prefer, you can read with your tongue between your teeth instead of the standard
behind-the-teeth position, and use a small mirror. Remember that with this technique you can
actually see your tongue disappear as you hear your L sounds drop off.
It's going to sound ridiculous, of course, and nobody would ever intentionally sound like this, but
no one will hear you practice. You don't want to sound like this: lllllllllll. Force your tongue to
make all the various vowels in spite of its position. Let's go.
Leave a little for Lola!

Exercise 5-9: Little Lola

CD 3 Track 34

Now that we've done this, instead of L being a hard letter to pronounce, it's the easiest one
because the tongue is stuck in that position. Pause the CD to practice the reading on your own,
again, with your tongue stuck to the top of your mouth. Read the following paragraph after me
with your tongue in the normal position. Use good, strong intonation. Follow my lead as I start
dropping h's here.
Little Lola felt left out in life. She told herself that luck controlled her and she truly believed that
only by loyally following an exalted leader could she be delivered from her solitude.
Unfortunately, she learned a little late that her life was her own to deal with. When she realized
it, she was already eligible for Social Security and she had lent her lifelong earnings to a lowlife
in Long Beach. She lay on her linoleum and slid along the floor in anguish. A little later, she
leapt up and laughed. She no longer longed for a leader to tell her how to live her life. Little Lola
was finally all well.
In our next paragraph about Thirty Little Turtles, we deal with another aspect of L, namely
consonant clusters. When you have a dl combination, you need to apply what you learned about
liaisons and the American T as well as the L.
Since the two sounds are located in a similar position in the mouth, you know that they are going
to be connected, right? You also know that all of these middle Ts are going to be pronounced D,
and that you're going to leave the tongue stuck to the top of your mouth. That may leave you
wondering: Where is the air to escape? The L sound is what determines that. For the D, you hold
the air in, the same as for a final D, then for the L, you release it around the sides of the tongue.
Let's go through the steps before proceeding to our next exercise.
91

Exercise 5-10: Dull versus ~dle

CD 3Track

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35
Repeat after me.

laid
ladle

Don't pop the final D sound.

lay dull

Here, your tongue can drop between the D and the L.

Segue gently from the D to the L, with a "small" schwa in-between.
Leave your tongue touching behind the teeth and just drop the sides to
let the air pass out.

To hear the difference between [dəl] and [dəəl], contrast the sentences, Don't lay dull tiles and
Don't ladle tiles.

Exercise 5-12: Thirty Little Turtles In a Bottle of Bottled Water CD 3 Track 37
Repeat the following paragraph, focusing on the consonant + əl combinations.
Thrdee Liddəl Terdəl Zinə Bäddələ Bäddəl Dwäder
A bottle of bottled water held 30 little turtles. It didn't matter that each turtle had to rattle a metal
ladle in order to get a little bit of noodles, a total turtle delicacy. The problem was that there were
many turtle battles for the less than oodles of noodles. The littlest turtles always lost, because
every time they thought about grappling with the haggler turtles, their little turtle minds boggled
and they only caught a little bit of noodles.
**********
**********
**********

Exercise 5-13: Speed-reading

CD 3 Track »

We've already practiced strong intonation, so now we'll just pick up the speed. First I'm going to
read our familiar paragraph, as fast as I can. Subsequently, you'll practice on your own, and then
we'll go over it together, sentence by sentence, to let you practice reading very fast, right after me.
By then you will have more or less mastered the idea, so record yourself reading really fast and with
very strong intonation. Listen back to see if you sound more fluent. Listen as I read.

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Hello, my name is__________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to learn,
but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation
pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use the up
and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to
pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately,
and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important
thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
+ Pause the CD and practice speed-reading on your own five times.
V Repeat each sentence after me.
V Record yourself speed-reading with strong intonation.

Exercise 5-14: Tandem Reading
39

CD 3 Track

The last reading that I'd like you to do is one along with me. Up to now, I have read first and you
have repeated in the pause that followed. Now, however, I would like you to read along at exactly
the same time that I read, so that we sound like one person reading. Read along with me.
93

Voice Quality

CD 3 Track 40

In the next chapter, we'll be working on a sound that is produced deep in the throat—the
American R. In Chapter 3, we studied two tense vowels, æ and ä, and the completely neutral
schwa, ə. The æ sound has a tendency to sound a little nasal all on its own, and when other
vowels are nasalized as well, it puts your whole voice in the wrong place. This is an opportune
moment, then, to go into the quality of your voice. In my observation, when people speak a
foreign language, they tense up their throat, so their whole communication style sounds forced,
pinched, strained, artificial, or nasal. The foreign speaker's voice is also generally higher pitched
than would be considered desirable. To practice the difference between high pitch and lower
pitch, work on uh-oh. In addition to pitch, this exercise will let you discover the difference
between a tinny, nasal tone and a deep, rich, mellifluous, basso profundo tone. The tilda (~) is
used to indicate a nasal sound.

Exercise 5-15: Shifting Your Voice Position

CD 3 Track 41

Pinch your nose closed and say œ. You should feel a high vibration in your nasal passages, as well
as in your fingers. Now, continue holding your nose, and completely relax your throat—allow an ah
sound to flow from deep in your chest. There should be no vibration in your nose at all. Go back and
forth several times. Next, we practice flowing from one position to the other, so you can feel exactly
when it changes from a nasal sound to a deep, rich schwa. Remember how it was imitating a man's
voice when you were little? Do that, pinch your nose, and repeat after me.
Nose
Throat
Chest
ãæ
•>
ãæ
•>
ãä
ä
•>
ə
•>
ə
•>
Here, we will practice the same progression, but we will stick with the same sound, æ.
Nose
Throat
Chest
ãæ

•>

ãæ

•>

æ

•>

æ

•>

æ

•>

æ

As you will see in Chapter 12, there are three nasal consonants, m, n, and ng. These have non-nasal
counterparts, m/b, n/d, ng/g. We're going to practice totally denasalizing your voice for a moment,
which means turning the nasals into the other consonants. We'll read the same sentence three times.
The first will be quite nasal. The second will sound like you have a cold. The third will have
appropriate nasal consonants, but denasalized vowels. Repeat after me.

Nasal

Clogged

Normal

Mãry might need money. Berry bite deed buddy.
Mary might need money.
Now that you have moved your voice out of your nose and down into your diaphragm, let s apply it.
A Lät of Läng, Hät Wälks in the Gärden. John was not sorry when the boss called off the walks

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in the garden. Obviously, to him, it was awfully hot, and the walks were far too long. He had not
thought that walking would have caught on the way it did, and he fought the policy from the
onset.
94

Chapter 6. The American R

CD 3 Track 42

American English, today—although continually changing—is made up of the sounds of the
various people who have come to settle here from many countries. All of them have put in their
linguistic two cents, the end result being that the easiest way to pronounce things has almost
always been adopted as the most American. R is an exception, along with L and the sounds of
[æ] and [th], and is one of the most troublesome sounds for people to acquire. Not only is it
difficult for adults learning the language, but also for American children, who pronounce it like a
W or skip over it altogether and only pick it up after they've learned all the other sounds.

The Invisible R
The trouble is that you can't see an R from the outside. With a P, for instance, you can see when
people put their lips together and pop out a little puff. With R, however, everything takes place
behind almost closed lips—back down in the throat—and who can tell what the tongue is doing?
It is really hard to tell what's going on if, when someone speaks, you can only hear the err sound,
especially if you're used to making an R by touching your tongue to the ridge behind your teeth.
So, what should your tongue be doing?
This technique can help you visualize the correct tongue movements in pronouncing the R. (1)
Hold your hand out flat, with the palm up, slightly dropping the back end of it. That's basically
the position your tongue is in when you say ah [ä], so your flat hand will represent this sound.
(2) Now, to go from ah to the er, take your fingers and curl them up slightly. Again, your tongue
should follow that action. The sides of your tongue should come up a bit, too. When the air
passes over that hollow in the middle of your tongue (look at the palm of your hand), that's what
creates the er sound.
Try it using both your hand and tongue simultaneously. Say ah, with your throat open (and your
hand flat), then curl your tongue up (and your fingers) and say errr. The tip of the tongue should
be aimed at a middle position in the mouth, but never touching, and your throat should relax and
expand. R, like L, has a slight schwa in it. This is what pulls the er down so far back in your
throat.
Another way to get to er is to go from the ee sound and slide your tongue straight back like a
collapsing accordion, letting the two sides of your tongue touch the insides of your molars; the
tip of the tongue, however, again, should not touch anything. Now from ee, pull your tongue
back toward the center of your throat, and pull the sound down into your throat:

Since the R is produced in the throat, let's link it with other throat sounds.
95

Exercise 6-1: R Location Practice

CD 3 Track 43

Repeat after me.
[g], [gr], greek, green, grass, grow, crow, core, cork, coral, cur, curl, girl, gorilla, her, erg, error,
mirror, were, war, gore, wrong, wringer, church, pearl
While you're perfecting your R, you might want to rush to it, and in doing so, neglect the
preceding vowel. There are certain vowels that you can neglect, but there are others that demand
their full sound. We're going to practice the ones that require you to keep that clear sound before
you add an R.

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Exercise 6-2 : Double Vowel with R

CD 3 Track 44

Refer to the subsequent lists of sounds and words as you work through each of the directions that
follow them. Repeat each sound, first the vowel and then the [ər], and each word in columns 1 to 3.
We will read all the way across.

1
2
3
[ä] + [er] [hä•ərd]
hard
[e] + [ər] [he•ər]
here
[ε] + [ər]
[shε•ər]
share
[o] + [ər] [mo•ər]
more
[ər] +[ər] [wər•ər]
were
We will next read column 3 only; try to keep that doubled sound, but let the vowel flow
smoothly into the [ər]; imagine a double stairstep that cannot be avoided. Don't make them two
staccato sounds, though, like [ha•rd]. Instead, flow them smoothly over the double stairstep:
Hääärrrrd.
Of course, they're not that long; this is an exaggeration and you're going to shorten them up once
you get better at the sound. When you say the first one, hard, to get your jaw open for the [hä],
imagine that you are getting ready to bite into an apple: [hä]. Then for the er sound, you would
bite into it: [hä•erd], hard.
x Pause the CD to practice five times on your own.
From a spelling standpoint, the American R can be a little difficult to figure out. With words like
where [wεər] and were [wər], it's confusing to know which one has two different vowel sounds
(where) and which one has just the [ər] (were). When there is a full vowel, you must make sure
to give it its complete sound, and not chop it short, [wε + ər].
For words with only the schwa + R [ər], don't try to introduce another vowel sound before the
[ər], regardless of spelling. The following words, for example, do not have any other vowel
sounds in them.
96

Looks like Sounds like

word
[wərd]
hurt
[hərt]
girl
[gərl]
[pərl]
pearl
The following exercise will further clarify this for you.

Exercise 6-3: How to Pronounce Troublesome Rs

CD 3 Track 45

The following seven R sounds, which are represented by the ten words, give people a lot of trouble,
so we're going to work with them and make them easy for you. Repeat.
1. were
[wər•ər]
2. word
[wər•ərd]

3. whirl
[wərrul]
4. world/whirled [were rolled]
5. wore/war
[woər]
6. whorl
[worul]
7. where/wear
[wεər]
1. Were is pronounced with a doubled [ər]: [wərər]
2. Word is also doubled, but after the second [ər], you're going to put your tongue in place for
the D and hold it there, keeping all the air in your mouth, opening your throat to give it that full-

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voiced quality (imagine yourself puffing your throat out like a bullfrog): [wərərd], word. Not
[wərd], which is too short. Not [wordə], which is too strong at the end. But [wər'ərd] word.
3. In whirl the R is followed by L. The R is in the throat and the back of the tongue stays down
because, as we've practiced, L starts with the schwa, but the tip of the tongue comes up for the L:
[wər•rə•lə], whirl.
4. World/whirled, like 5 and 7, has two spellings (and two different meanings, of course).
You're going to do the same thing as for whirl, but you're going to add that voiced D at the end,
holding the air in: [wər•rəl(d)], world/whirled. It should sound almost like two words: wére
rolled.
5. Here, you have an [o] sound in either spelling before the [ər]: [wo•ər], wore/war.
6. For whorl, you're going to do the same thing as in 5, but you're going to add a schwa + L at
the end: [wo•ərəl], whorl.
7. This sound is similar to 5, but you have [ε] before the [ər]: [wε•ər], where/wear.
97

The following words are typical in that they are spelled one way and pronounced in another way.
The ar combination frequently sounds like [εr], as in embarrass [embεrəs]. This sound is
particularly clear on the West Coast. On the East Coast, you may hear [embærəs].

Repeat after me.
The Hurly Burly Mirror Store at Vermont and Beverly featured hundreds of first-rate minors.
There were several mirrors on the chest of drawers, and the largest one was turned toward the
door in order to make the room look bigger. One of the girls who worked there was concerned
that a bird might get hurt by hurtling into its own reflection. She learned by trial and error how to
preserve both the mirrors and the birds. Her earnings were proportionately increased at the
mirror store to reflect her contribution to the greater good.
× Pause the CD to practice reading out loud three times on your own.

Exercise 6-7: Finding the R Sound

CD 3 Track 49

Pause the CD and go through our familiar paragraph and find all the R sounds. The first one is
marked for you.
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a
lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
V Check your answers with the Answer Key, beginning on page 193.

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99

Telephone Tutoring
Follow-up Diagnostic Analysis

CD 3 Track 50

After three to six months, you're ready for the follow-up analysis. If you're studying on your
own, please contact toll-free (800) 457-4255 or www.americanaccent.com for a referral to a
qualified telephone analyst. The diagnostic analysis is designed to evaluate your current speech
patterns to let you know where your accent is standard and nonstandard.

Think the United Auto Workers can beat Caterpillar Inc. in their bitter contract battle? Before placing your bets, talk to Paul
Branan, who can't wait to cross the picket line at Caterpillar's factory in East Peoria. Branan, recently laid off by a rubber-parts
plant where he earned base pay of $6.30 an hour, lives one block from a heavily picketed gate at the Cat complex. Now he's
applying to replace one of 12,600 workers who have been on strike for the past five months. "Seventeen dollars an hour and they
don't want to work?" asks Branan. "I don't want to take another guy's job, but I'm hurting, too."

1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

saw, lost, cough
can, Dan, last
same, say, rail
yet, says, Paris

A

parry
ferry
stew
sheet
two
choke
think
come
yes
wool
his
late
glow

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

5.
6.
7.
8.

shine, time, my
sit, silk, been
seat, see, bean
word, girl, first

B

bury
very
zoo
girl
do
joke
that
gum
rate
grow
me
next

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Who opened it?
We opened it.
Put it away.
Bob ate an orange.
Can it be done?

Chapters 1-6 Review and Expansion
In the first six chapters of the American Accent Training program, we covered the concepts that
form the basis of American speech—intonation, word groups, the staircase, and liaisons, or word
connections. We also discussed some key sounds, such as [æ], [ä], and [ə] (Cat? Caught? Cut?),
the El, the American T, and the American R. Let's briefly review each item.

Intonation
You've learned some of the reasons for changing the pitch (or saying a word louder or even
streeetching it out) of some words in a sentence.
1. To introduce new information (nouns)
2. To offer an opinion
3. To contrast two or more elements
4. To indicate the use of the negative contraction can't
For example:

New information

Opinion

Contrast

Can't

He bought a car.

It feels like mink, but I think it's rabbit.

Timing is more important than technique. He can't do it.
You've also learned how to change meaning by shifting intonation, without changing any of the
actual words in a sentence.
I applied for the job (not you!).
I applied for the job (but I don't think I'll get it).
I applied for the job (not I applied myself to the job).
I applied for the job (the one I've been dreaming about for years!)
I applied for the job (not the lifestyle!).

Miscellaneous Reminders of Intonation
When you have a verb/preposition combination, the stress usually goes on the preposition: pick
up, put down, fall in, and so on. Otherwise, prepositions are placed in the valleys of your
intonation. It's f'r you., They're fr'm LA.
When you have initials, the stress goes on the last letter: IBM, PO Box, ASAP, IOU, and so on.
101

Liaisons and Glides
Through liaisons, you learned about voiced and unvoiced consonants—where they are located in
the mouth and which sounds are likely to attach to a following one. You were also introduced to
glides.

1.

Consonant and Vowel

Put it on.

[Pu•di•dan.]

2.

Consonant and Consonant

race track

[ray•stræk]

3.

Vowel and Vowel

No other

[No(w)other]

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4.

T and Y
D and Y
S and Y
Z and Y

Put you on
Had you?
Yes, you do.
Is your cat?

[Puchü(w)än]
[Hæjoo?]
[Yeshu do.]
[Izher cat?]

Cat? Caught? Cut?
This lesson was an introduction to pronunciation, especially those highly characteristic sounds,
[æ], [ä] and [ə].
[æ] The jaw moves down and back while the back of the tongue pushes forward and
the tip touches the back of the bottom teeth. Sometimes it almost sounds like
there's a Y in there: cat [kyæt]
[a] Relax the tongue, open the throat like you're letting the doctor see all the way to
your toes: aah.
[ə] This sound is the sound that would come out if you were pushed (lightly) in the
stomach: uh. You don't need to put your mouth in any particular position at all.
The sound is created when the air is forced out of the diaphragm and past the
vocal cords.

The American T
T is T, a clear popped sound, when it is at the top of the staircase.

•

at the the beginning of a word, table
in a stressed syllable, intend
•
in ST, TS, TR, CT clusters, instruct
•
replaces D after unvoiced consonants, hoped
[hopt]
T is D, a softer sound, when it is in the middle of the staircase
•
in an unstressed position between vowels, cattle [caddie]
•

T or TT, and D or DD are held, (not pronounced with a sharp burst of air) when they are at the
bottom of the staircase.
• at the end of a word, bought [bä(t)]
102

T is held before N.
• unstressed and followed by -ten or -tain, written [wri(tt)en]
T is held before N.
• swallowed by N, interview [innerview]

The El
The El is closely connected with the schwa. Your tongue drops down in back as if it were going
to say uh, but the tip curls up and attaches to the top of the mouth, which requires a strong
movement of the tip of the tongue. The air comes out around the sides of the tongue and the
sound is held for slightly longer than you'd think.

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The American R
The main difference between a consonant and a vowel is that with a consonant there is contact at
some point in your mouth. It might be the lips, P; the tongue tip, N; or the throat, G. Like a
vowel, however, the R doesn't touch anywhere. It is similar to a schwa, but your tongue curls
back in a retroflex movement and produces a sound deep in the throat. The tongue doesn't touch
the top of the mouth. Another way to approach it is to put your tongue in position for ee, and then
slide straight back to eeer. Some people are more comfortable collapsing their tongue back, like
an accordion instead of curling it. It doesn't make any difference in the sound, so do whichever
you prefer.

Application Exercises
Now you need to use the techniques you've learned so far and to make the transference to your
everyday speech. In the beginning, the process is very slow and analytical, but as you do it over
and over again, it becomes natural and unconscious. The exercises presented here will show you
how. For example, take any phrase that may catch your ear during a conversation—because it is
unfamiliar, or for whatever other reason—and work it though the practice sequence used in
Review Exercise 1.

Review Exercise 1 : To have a friend, be a friend. CD 3 Track 51
Take the repeated phrase in the following application steps. Apply each concept indicated there, one
at a time and in the sequence given. Read the sentence out loud two or three times, concentrating
only on the one concept. This means that when you are working on liaisons, for instance, you don't
have to pay much attention to intonation, just for that short time. First, read the phrase with no
preparation and record yourself doing it.

To have a friend, be a friend.

Review Exercise 2: To have a friend, be a friend.

CD 3 Track 52

Pause the CD and go through each step using the following explanation as a guide.
103

1. Intonation

You want to figure out where the intonation belongs when you first encounter a phrase. In this
example friend is repeated, so a good reason for intonation would be the contrast that lies in the
verbs have and be:
To have a friend, be a friend.

2. Word groups

The pause in this case is easy because it's a short sentence with a comma, so we put one there.
With your own phrases, look for a logical break, or other hints, as when you have the verb to be,
you usually pause very slightly just before it, because it means that you're introducing a
definition:
A (pause) is B.
Cows(pause) are ruminants. To have a friend,(pause) be a friend.

3. Liaisons

Figure out which words you want to run together. Look for words that start with vowels and
connect them to the previous word:
To hava friend, be(y)a friend.
4. æ, ä, ə
Label these common sounds in the sentence:
Tə hævə friend, be ə friend.

5. The American T

Work with it, making it into a D or CH, holding it back or getting rid of it altogether, as

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appropriate. In this phrase, there are no Ts, but the D is held:
To have a frien(d), be a frien(d).

6. The American R

Mark all the Rs.
To have a friend, be a friend.

7. Combination of concepts 1-6

Tə hævə frεn(d),(pause) be(y)ə frεnd(d).
T Practice the sequence of steps a couple of times and then record yourself again; place your
second recording right after the first one on your tape. Play them both back and see if you hear a
strong difference.
104

Review Exercise 3: Get a Better Water Heater!

CD 3 Track 53

Pause the CD and go through the same steps with "Get a better water heater!"
1. Intonation
Get a better water heater!
2. Word groups
Get a better water heater! (pause)
3. Liaisons
Geta better water heater!
4. [æ], [a], [ə]
Getə better water heater!
5. The American T
Ged a bedder wadder heeder!
6. The American R
Get a better water heater!
7. Combination of Concepts 1-6 Gεdə bεddr wädr heedr!

Are you shy? Does doing this embarrass you? Are you thinking that people will notice your new
accent and criticize you for it? In the beginning, you may feel a little strange with these new
sounds that you are using, but don't worry, it's like a new pair of shoes—they take a while to
break in and make comfortable. Nevertheless, I hope that you are enjoying this program.
Adopting a new accent can become too personal and too emotional an issue, so don't take it too
seriously. Relax. Have a good time. Play with the sounds that you are making. Whenever a word
or phrase strikes your fancy, go somewhere private and comfortable and try out a couple of
different approaches, styles, and attitudes with it—as you are going to do in the next exercise. If
possible, record yourself on tape so you can decide which one suits you best.

Review Exercise 5: Varying Emotions

CD 3 Track 55

Repeat the following statement and response expressing the various feelings or tone indicated in
parentheses.
I thought it would!
I told you it wouldn't
anger

excitement
disbelief
smugness
105

work! !
I thought it would!
I told you it wouldn't
work! !
I told you it wouldn't work? And I thought it would?
I told you it wouldn't work. I thought it would. (I-told-you-so attitude)

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Review Exercise 5: Varying Emotions continued
I told you it wouldn't work. I thought it would
humor
I told you it wouldn't work. I thought it would.
sadness
I told you it wouldn't work. Whew! I thought it would.
relief
resignation I told you it wouldn't work. I thought it would.

Repeat the following statements and responses expressing the various feelings.
1. Who did it? (curiosity)
I don't know. (ignorance)
2. Who did it? (interrogation)
I don't know. (self-protection)
3. Who did it? (anger)
I don't know. (insistence)
106

Who did it? (repeating)
Who did it? (sarcasm)
Who did it? (sadness)
Who did it? (relief)
Whooo did it? (coy interrogation)
Who did it? (annoyance)
Who did it? (laughing with disbelief)
Who did it? (surprise)
Who did it? (your choice)

Russia's offensive against rebels in the breakaway region of Chechnya is entering a new phase. On
the one hand, Russian forces are taking full control of the Russian capital Grozny, and Moscow says
the war seems to be turning in its favor. On the other hand the rebels could be retreating Grozny just
to fight another day—ensuring a long guerilla war. The four-month conflict topped the agenda today
during Secretary of State Madeline Albright's talks with acting Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Albright then left for Croatia, about which we'll hear more shortly. But first, we turn to the World's
Nennet Shevek in Moscow.
"Albright and Putin met for longer than planned today—for nearly three hours. After the talks,
Albright called the meeting intense, but pleasant, and offered this assessment of Russia's acting
president."
"I found him a very well informed person. He's obviously a Russian patriot and also someone who
seeks a normal position for Russia within the West—and he struck me as a problem solver."
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Here we are reprising the exercise from Exercises 1-24 to 1-37. To review, an adjective and a noun
make a descriptive phrase, and the second word is stressed. Two nouns make a compound noun, or
set phrase, and the first word is stressed. Repeat the following sentences. Copy your descriptive
phrases and set phrases (Ex. 1-31). You will continue using these word combinations throughout this
series of exercises.

Descriptive Phrase
It's a short nail.
It's a chocolate cake.
It's a hot bath.
It's a long drive.
It's the back door.
6. There are four cards.
7. It's a small spot.
8. It's a good book.
9. It's a ___________
10. It's a ___________
11. It's a ___________
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Set Phrase
It's a fingernail.
It's a pancake.
It's a hot tub.
It's a hard drive.
It's the backbone.
It's a card trick.
It's a spotlight.
It's a phone book.
It's a ___________
It's a ___________
It's a ___________

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Review Exercise B: Intonation Review Test

CD 3 Track 60

Pause the CD and put an accent mark over the word that should be stressed. Check the Answer Key,
beginning on page 193.
1. They live in Los Angeles.
11.
We like everything.
2. Give me a paper bag.
12.
It's a moving van.
3. Is that your lunch bag?
13.
It's a new paper.
4. 7-11 is a convenience store.
14.
It's the newspaper.
5. Lucky's is a convenient store.
15.
The doll has glass eves.
16.
The doll has eyeglasses.
6. Do your homework!
7. He's a good writer.
17.
It's a high chair.
8. It's an apple pie.
18.
It's a highchair. (for babies)
9. It's a pineapple.
19.
It's a baseball.
10. We like all things.
20.
It's a blue ball.
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Three-Word Phrases
Review Exercise C: Modifying Descriptive Phrases

CD 3 Track 61

When you modify a descriptive phrase by adding an adjective or adverb, you maintain the original
intonation pattern and simply add an additional stress point.

Descriptive Phrase
1.

It's a short nail.
It's a chocolate cake.
3. I took a hot bath.
4. It's a hard drive.
5. It's the back door.
6. There are four cards.
7. It's a little spot.
8. It's a good book.
9. It's a __________________
10. It's a __________________
11. It's a __________________
2.

Modified Descriptive Phrase
It's a really short nail.
It's a tasty chocolate cake.
I took a long, hot bath.
It's a long, hard drive.
It's the only back door.
There are four slick cards.
It's a little black spot.
It's a really good book.
It's a __________________
It's a __________________
It's a __________________

Review Exercise D; Modifying Set Phrases

CD 3 Track 62

When you modify a set phrase, you maintain the same pattern, leaving the new adjective unstressed.

You should be pretty familiar with the idea of a set phrase by now. The next step is when you have
more components that link together to form a new thing—a three-word set phrase. Combine three
things: finger + nail + clipper. Leave the stress on the first word: fíngernail clipper. Although you
are now using three words, they still mean one new thing. Write your own sentences, using the word
combinations from the previous exercises.

Review Exercise G: Three-Word Phrase Story—Three Little Pigs CD 4 Track 1
Notice where there are patterns, where the words change, but the rhythm stays the same (strawcutting tools, woodcutting tools, bricklaying tools). Read the story aloud.
Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. They lived with their kind old mother near a
large, dark forest. One day, they decided to build their own houses. The first little pig used
straw. He took his straw-cutting tools and his new lawnmower, and built a little straw house.
The second little pig used sticks. He took his woodcutting tools and some old paintbrushes and
built a small wooden house. The third little pig, who was a very hard worker, used bricks. He
took his bricklaying tools, an expensive mortarboard, and built a large brick house. In the forest,
lived a big bad wolf. He wanted to eat the three little pigs, so he went to the flimsy straw abode
and tried to blow it down. "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin !" cried the three little
porkers. But the house was not very strong, and the big bad beast blew it down. The three little
pigs ran to the rickety wooden structure, but the big bad wolf blew it down, too. Quickly, the
three little piggies ran to the sturdy brick dwelling and hid inside. The big bad wolf huffed and
he puffed, but he couldn't blow the strong brick house down. The three little pigs laughed and
danced and sang.

Review Exercise H: Sentence Balance—Goldilocks

CD 4 Track 2

One of the most fascinating things about spoken English is how the intonation prepares the
listener for what is coming. As you know, the main job of intonation is to announce new
information. However, there is a secondary function, and that is to alert the listener of changes
down the road. Certain shifts will be dictated for the sake of sentence balance. Set phrases and
contrast don't change, but the intonation of a descriptive phrase will move from the second word
to the first, without changing the meaning. The stress change indicates that it's not the end of
the sentence, but rather, there is more to come. This is why it is particularly important to speak
in phrases, instead of word by word.
When we practiced Goldilocks and the Three Bears the first time, on page 34, we had very short
sentences so we didn't need sentence balance. All of the underlined descriptive phrases would
otherwise be stressed on the second word, if the shift weren't needed.
There is a little girl called Goldilocks. She is walking through a sunny forest and sees a small
house. She knocks on the door, but no one answers. She goes inside to see what's there. There
are three chairs in the large room. Goldilocks sits on the biggest chair. It's too high for her to sit
on. She sits on the middle-sized one, but it's is too low. She sits on the small chair and it is just
right. On the table, there are three bowls of porridge. She tries the first one, but it is too hot to
swallow. The second one is too cold, and the third one is just right, so she eats it all. After that,
she goes upstairs to look around. There are three beds in
111

the bedroom. She sits down on the biggest one. It's too hard to sleep on. The middle-sized bed is too
soft. The little one is just right, so she lies down and falls asleep.
In the meantime, the family of three bears comes home — the Papa bear, the Mama bear, and the
Baby bear. They look around and say, "Who's been sitting in our chairs and eating our porridge?"
Then they run upstairs and say, "Who's been sleeping in our beds?" Goldilocks wakes up when she
hears all the noise and is so scared that she runs out of the house and never comes back.

Four-Word Phrases
Review Exercise I: Multiple Modifiers with Set Phrases CD 4 Track 3
When you continue to modify a set phrase, you maintain the original intonation pattern and simply
add an additional stress point.

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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

Modified Set Phrase

It's a short fingernail.
It's a banana pancake.
It's a leaky hot tub.
It's a new hard drive.
It's a long backbone.
It's a wrinkled playing card.
It's a bright spotlight.
It's the new phone book.
It's a _______________
It's a _______________
It's a _______________

Remodified Set Phrase

It's a really short fingernail.
It's a tasty banana pancake.
It's a leaky old hot tub.
It's a brand new hard drive.
It's a long, hard backbone.
It's a wrinkled, old playing card.
It's a bright white spotlight.
It's a new age phone book.
It's a _______________
It's a _______________
It's a _______________

Review Exercise J: Compound intonation of Numbers

CD 4 Track 4

In short phrases (#1 and #2), ~teen can be thought of as a separate word in terms of intonation. In
longer phrases, the number + ~teen becomes one word. Repeat after me.
2. How long has it been? 3. How old is he?
1. How old is he?
He's fourteen. [fortéen]
He's fourteen years old.
Fourteen years.
He's forty. [fórdy]
Forty years.
He's forty years old.
112

Review Exercise K: Modify ing Three-Word Set Phrases

CD 4 Track 5

When you continue to modify a set phrase, you maintain the original intonation pattern and simply
add an unstressed modifier.

Repeat after me.
Once upon a time, there was a cute little redhead named Little Red Riding Hood. One day, she
told her mother that she wanted to take a well-stocked picnic basket to her dear old grandmother
on the other side of the dark, scary Black Forest. Her mother warned her not to talk to strangers
— especially the dangerous big bad wolf. Little Red Riding Hood said she would be careful, and
left. Halfway there, she saw a mild-mannered hitchhiker. She pulled over in her bright red
sports car and offered him a ride. Just before they got to the freeway turnoff for her old

Стр. 107 из 185

grandmother's house, the heavily bearded young man jumped out and ran away. (Was he the
wolf?) He hurried ahead to the waiting grandmother's house, let himself in, ate her, and jumped
into her bed to wait for Little Red Riding Hood. When Little Red Riding Hood got to the house,
she was surprised, "Grandmother, what big eyes you have!" The wolf replied, "The better to see
you with, my dear..." "But Grandmother, what big ears you have!" "The better to hear you with,
my dear..." "Oh, Grandmother, what big teeth you have!" "The better to eat you with!" And the
wolf jumped out of the bed to eat Little Red Riding Hood. Fortunately for her, she was a recently
paid-up member of the infamous National Rifle Association so she pulled out her brand new
shotgun and shot the wolf dead.
113

Now, let's dissect a standard paragraph, including its title, as we did in Review Exercise 1. First—in
the boxes in the first paragraph, decide which is a descriptive phrase, which is a set phrase, and
where any additional stress might fall. Remember, descriptive phrases are stressed on the second
word and set phrases on the first. Use one of your colored markers to indicate the stressed words.
Second—go through the paragraph and mark the remaining stressed words. Third—put slash
marks where you think a short pause is appropriate. Listen as I read the paragraph.
× Pause the CD and do the written exercises including intonation, word groups, liaisons, [æ], [ä],
[ə], and the American T.

1.

Two-word phrases, intonation and phrasing
Ignorance on Parade
You say you don't know a proton from a crouton? Well, you're not the only one. A
recent nationwide survey funded by the National Science Foundation shows that
fewer than 6 percent of American adults can be called scientifically literate. The
rest think that DNA is a food additive, Chernobyl is a ski resort, and radioactive
milk can be made safe by boiling.* Judith Stone / 1989 Discover Publications

2.

Word Connections
Ignoran sän Parade
You say you don't know a proton from a crouton? Well, you're not the only one. A
recent nationwide survey funded by the National Science Foundation shows that
fewer than 6 percent of American adults can be called scientifically literate. The
rest think that DNA is a food additive, Chernobyl is a ski resort, and radioactive
milk can be made safe by boiling.

3.

[æ], [ä], [ə]
Ignərənce än Pərade
You say you don't know a proton from a crouton? Well, you're not the only one. A
recent nationwide survey funded by the National Science Foundation shows that
fewer than 6 percent of American adults can be called scientifically literate. The
rest think that DNA is a food additive, Chernobyl is a ski resort, and radioactive
milk can be made safe by boiling.

4.

The American T
Ignorants on Parade
You say you don't know a proton from a crouton? Well, you're not the only one. A
recent nationwide survey funded by the National Science Foundation shows that
fewer than 6 percent of American adults can be called scientifically literate. The
rest think that DNA is a food additive, Chernobyl is a ski resort, and radioactive
milk can be made safe by boiling.

115

Review Exercise 10: Ignorance on Parade Explanations.
Here, go over each topic, point by point.
1.

The rest think (contrast)
DNA (acronym)
food additive (set phrase)
ski resort (set phrase)
radioactive milk (descriptive phrase)
Ignorance on Parade(stop)
You say you don't know a proton from a crouton? (pause) Well,(pause) you're not the only
one.(pause) A recent nationwide survey (pause) funded by the National Science Foundation
(pause) shows that fewer than 6 percent of American adults (pause) can be called scientifically
literate.(stop) The rest think(pause) that DNA is a food additive,(pause) Chernobyl is a ski
resort,(pause) and radioactive milk(pause) can be made safe by boiling.

Review Exercise 10: Ignorance on Parade Explanations continued CD 4 Track 9
4. The American T
Ignorants on Parade
You say you don(t) know a proTon from a crouTon? Well, you're nä(t) the only one.
A recen(t) nationwide survey funded by the National Science Foundation shows tha(t)
fewer than 6 percen of American adulTs can be called scienTifically liderə(t). The
ress think tha(t) DNA is a food addidive, Chernobyl is a ski resor(t), and radioakdiv
milk can be made safe by boiling.

I'd like you to consider words as rocks for a moment. When a rock first rolls into the ocean, it is
sharp and well defined. After tumbling about for a few millennia, it becomes round and smooth.
A word goes through a similar process. When it first rolls into English, it may have a lot of
sharp, well-defined vowels or consonants in it, but after rolling off of a few million tongues, it
becomes round and smooth. This smoothing process occurs when a tense vowel becomes
reduced and when an unvoiced consonant becomes voiced. The most common words are the
smoothest, the most reduced, the most often voiced. There are several very common words that
are all voiced: this, that, the, those, them, they, their, there, then, than, though. The strong words
such as thank, think, or thing, as well as long or unusual words such as thermometer or
theologian, stay unvoiced.
The sound of the TH combination seems to exist only in English, Greek, and Castillian Spanish.
Just as with most of the other consonants, there are two types—voiced and unvoiced. The voiced
TH is like a D, but instead of being in back of the teeth, it's 1/4 inch lower and forward, between
the teeth. The unvoiced TH is like an S between the teeth. Most people tend to replace the
unvoiced TH with S or T and the voiced one with Z or D, so instead of thing, they say sing, or
ting, and instead of that, they say zat or dat.
To pronounce TH correctly, think of a snake's tongue. You don't want to take a big relaxed
tongue, throw it out of your mouth for a long distance and leave it out there for a long time.
Make only a very quick, sharp little movement. Keep your tongue's tip very tense. It darts out
between your teeth and snaps back very quickly—thing, that, this. The tongue's position for the
unvoiced TH is similar to that of S, but for TH the tongue is extended through the teeth, instead
of hissing behind the back of the teeth. The voiced TH is like a D except that the tongue is
placed between the teeth, or even pressed behind the teeth. Now we're ready for some practice.
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Exercise 7-1 : The Throng of Thermometers
11

CD 4 Track

I'm going to read the following paragraph once straight through, so you can hear that no matter how
fast I read it, all the THs are still there. It is a distinctive sound, but, when you repeat it, don't put too
much effort into it. Listen to my reading.
The throng of thermometers from the Thuringian Thermometer Folks arrived on Thursday.
There were a thousand thirty-three thick thermometers, though, instead of a thousand thirty-six
thin thermometers, which was three thermometers fewer than the thousand thirty-six we were
expecting, not to mention that they were thick ones rather than thin ones. We thoroughly
thought that we had ordered a thousand thirty-six, not a thousand thirty-three, thermometers, and
asked the Thuringian Thermometer Folks to reship the thermometers; thin, not thick. They
apologized for sending only a thousand thirty-three thermometers rather than a thousand thirtysix and promised to replace the thick thermometers with thin thermometers.
th = unvoiced (44)
th = voiced (17)

Run Them All Together [runnemälld'gether]
As I was reading, I hope you heard that in a lot of places, the words ran together, such as in
rather than. You don't have to go way out of your way to make a huge new sound, but rather
create a smooth flowing from one TH to the next by leaving your tongue in an anticipatory
position.
As mentioned before (see Liaisons, page 63), when a word ends in TH and the next word starts
with a sound from behind the teeth, a combination or composite sound is formed, because you
are anticipating the combination. For example: with-lemon; not with lemon.

Anticipating the Next Word
The anticipation of each following sound brings me to the subject that most students raise at
some point—one that explains their resistance to wholly embracing liaisons and general fluency.

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People feel that because English is not their native tongue, they can't anticipate the next sound
because they never know what the next word is going to be.
Accurate or not, for the sake of argument, let's say that you do construct sentences entirely word
by word. This is where those pauses that we studied come in handy. During your pause, line up
in your head all the words you want to use in order to communicate your thought, and then push
them out in groups. If you find yourself slowing down and talking...word...by...word, back up
and take a running leap at a whole string of words.
Now, take out your little mirror again. You need it for the last exercise in this chapter, which
follows.
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Exercise 7-2: Targeting The TH Sound
12

CD 4 Track

In order to target the TH sound, first, hold a mirror in front of you and read our familiar paragraph
silently, moving only your tongue. It should be visible in the mirror each time you come to a TH.
Second, find all of the THs, both voiced and unvoiced. Remember, a voiced sound makes your throat
vibrate, and you can feel that vibration by placing your fingers on your throat. There are ten voiced
and two unvoiced THs here. You can mark them by underscoring the former and drawing a circle
around the latter. Or, if you prefer, use two of your color markers. Pause the CD to mark the TH
sounds. Don't forget to check your answers against the Answer Key, beginning on page 193.
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's
a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 7-3: Tongue Twisters

CD 4 Track 13

Feeling confident? Good! Try the following tongue twisters and have some fun.
1. The sixth sick Sheik's sixth thick sheep.
2. This is a zither. Is this a zither?
3. I thought a thought. But the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I thought. If the
thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn't have thought so much.
120

Chapter 8. More Reduced Sounds
14

CD 4 Track

There are two sounds that look similar, but sound quite different. One is the tense vowel [u],
pronounced ooh, and the other is the soft vowel [ü], whose pronunciation is a combination of ih
and uh. The [u] sound is located far forward in the mouth and requires you to round your lips.
The [ü] is one of the four reduced vowel sounds that are made in the throat: The most tense, and
highest in the throat is [ε], next, slightly more relaxed is [i], then [ü], and deepest and most
relaxed is the neutral schwa [ə]. For the reduced semivowel schwa + R, the throat is relaxed, but
the tongue is tense.

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Exercise 8-1 : Comparing [u] and [ü]

CD 4 Track 15

Look at the chart that follows and repeat each word. We are contrasting the sound [u] (first
column)—a strong, nonreducible sound, ooh, that is made far forward in the mouth, with the lips
fully rounded—with the reduced [ü] sound in the second and fourth columns.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

u

booed
boo
cooed
cool
food
fool
gooed
who'd
kook
crew

ü

book
bushel
could
cushion
foot
full
good
hood
cook
crook

u

11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

Luke
nuke
pool
pooch
shoe
suit
shoot
stewed
toucan
wooed

ü

look
nook
pull
put
sugar
soot
should
stood
took
would

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Exercise 8-2: Lax Vowels

CD 4 Track 16

The lax vowels are produced in the throat and are actually quite similar to each other. Let's practice
some lax vowels. See also Chapter 11 to contrast with tense vowels. Remember to double the vowel
when the word ends in a voiced consonant.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

e

end
bet
kept
check
debt
fence
fell
get
help
held
gel
ked
crest
let
men

We've discussed intonation in terms of new information, contrast, opinion, and negatives. As you
heard on p. 3, Americans tend to stretch out certain one-syllable words ... but which ones? The
answer is simple—when a single syllable word ends in an unvoiced consonant, the vowel is on a
single stairstep—short and sharp. When the word ends in a voiced consonant, or a vowel, the vowel
is on a double stairstep. (For an explanation of voiced and unvoiced consonants, see page 62.) You
can also think of this in terms of musical notes.
Here you are going to compare the four words bit, bid, beat, and bead. Once you can distinguish
these four, all of the rest are easy. Repeat.

single

double

tense

beat

bead

lax

bit

bid

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Note You may hear tense vowels called long vowels, but this can cause confusion when you are
talking about the long, or doubled vowel before a voiced consonant. Use the rubber band to
distinguish: Make a short, sharp snap for the single note words (beat, bit) and a longer, stretched
out loop for the double note words (bead, bid).

Exercise 8-4: Bit or Beat? Bid or Bead?

CD 4 Track 18

Read each column down. Next, contrast the single and double tense vowels with each other; and the
single and double lax vowels with each other. Finally read all four across.

bid
Sid
hid
rapid
fin
Ms.
his
did
(nid)
live
intonation pattern is the same for all final voiced and

123

Exercise 8-5: Tense and Lax Vowel Exercise

CD 4Track 19

Let's practice tense and lax vowels in context. The intonation is marked for you. When in doubt, try
to leave out the lax vowel rather than run the risk of overpronouncing it: l'p in place of lip, so it
doesn't sound like leap. Repeat:

I eat it.
The beat is a bit strong.
Give me a kiss for the keys.
The chick's cheek is soft.
He did the deed.
These shoes fit my feet.
Do you feel that we should fill it?
The Martian's grin was green.
Last summer, the heat hit hard.
Put your heel on the hill.
Jill's jeep is here.
Let's creep near the crypt.
He bumped his lip when he leaped.
She had a meal at the mill.
He can knit neatly.
Don't peel that pill!
Get rid of the reed.
We seek the sixth sick sheik's sheep.
There are sheep on the ship.
The girl sleeps in a slip.
He still steals.
Meryl Streep is in a comic strip.

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23. team
Tim
Tim is on the team.
24. these
this
These are better than this one.
25. thief
thing The thief took my thing.
26. weep
whip Who weeps from the whips?
In the time you have taken to reach this point in the program, you will have made a lot of
decisions about your own individual speech style. Pronunciation of reduced sounds is more
subjective and depends on how quickly you speak, how you prefer to express yourself, the range
of your intonation, how much you want to reduce certain vowels, and so on.
124

In the following example, you will see how you can fully sound out a word (such as to), reduce it
slightly, or do away with it altogether.
1. ... easier tū(w)ənderstand.
2. ... easier tü(w)ənderstand.
3. ... easier tə ənderstand.
4. ... easier tənderstand.
5. ... easier dənderstand.
Each of the preceding examples is correct and appropriate when said well. If you have a good
understanding of intonation, you might be best understood if you used the last example.
How would this work with the rest of our familiar paragraph, you ask? Let's see.

Exercise 8-8: Finding Reduced Sounds

CD 4 Track 22

Go through the paragraph that follows and find the three [ü]'s and the five to seven [u]'s. Remember
that your own speech style can increase the possibilities. With "to" before a vowel, you have a choice
of a strong [u], a soft [ü], a schwa, or to telescope the two words and eliminate the vowel entirely.
Pause the CD to mark the [ü] and [u] sounds. The first one is marked for you. Remember to check
Answer Key, beginning on page 193.
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a
lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I shüd pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
ūse the up and down, or peaks and valleys intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
126

Exercise 8-9: How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck?
How fast can you say:
How much wood
would a wood chuck chuck,

if a woodchuck
could chuck
wood?

CD 4 Track 23

hæo məch wüd
wüdə wüdchək chək
ifə wüdchəck
cüd chəck
wüd

How many cookies
hæo meny cükeez
could a good cook cook,
cüdə güd cük cük
if a good cook
ifə güd cük
could cook
cüd cük
cookies?
cükeez
In the following two exercises, we will practice the two vowel sounds separately.

Exercise 8-10; Büker Wülsey's Cükbük

CD 4 Track 24

Repeat after me.
Booker Woolsey was a good cook. One day, he took a good look at his full schedule and decided
that he could write a good cookbook. He knew that he could, and thought that he should, but he
wasn't sure that he ever would. Once he had made up his mind, he stood up, pulled up a table,

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took a cushion, and put it on a bushel basket of sugar in the kitchen nook. He shook out his
writing hand and put his mind to creating a good, good cookbook.

Exercise 8-11: A True Fool
25

CD 4 Track

Repeat after me.
A true fool will choose to drool in a pool to stay cool. Who knew that such fools were in the
schools, used tools, and flew balloons? Lou knew and now you do, too.
127

Intonation and Attitude
There are certain sounds in any language that are considered nonsense syllables, yet impart a
large amount of information to the informed listener. Each language has a different set of these
sounds, such as eto ne in Japanese, em in Spanish, eu in French, and um in English. In this
particular case, these are the sounds that a native speaker makes when he is thinking out loud—
holding the floor, but not yet committing to actually speaking.

Exercise 8-12: Nonverbal Intonation

CD 4 Track 26

The top eight are the most common non-word communication sounds. They can all be nasalized or
not, and said with the mouth open or closed. Intonation is the important factor here. Repeat after me.

128

Chapter 9. "V" as in Victory

CD 4 Track 27

When pronounced correctly, V shouldn't stand out too much. Its sound, although noticeable, is

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small. As a result, people, depending on their native language, sometimes confuse V with B
(Spanish, Japanese), with F (German), or with W (Chinese, Hindi). These four sounds are not at
all interchangeable.
The W is a semivowel and there is no friction or contact. The B, like P, uses both lips and has a
slight pop. American tend to have a strong, popping P. You can check your pronunciation by
holding a match, a sheet of paper, or just your hand in front of your mouth. If the flame goes out,
the paper wavers, or you feel a distinct puff of air on your hand, you've said P not B. B is the
voiced pair of P.
Although F and V are in exactly the same position, F is a hiss and V is a buzz. The V is the
voiced pair of F, as you saw in Chapter 2 (p. 62). When you say F, it is as if you are whispering.
So, for V, say F and simply add some voice to it, which is the whole difference between fairy
and very, as you will hear in our next exercise. (The F, too, presents problems to Japanese, who
say H. To pronounce F, the lower lip raises up and the inside of the lip very lightly touches the
outside of the upper teeth and you make a slight hissing sound. Don't bite the outside of your lip
at all.)
Note In speaking, of is reduced to [əv].

Repeat after me, focusing on V and W.
When revising his visitor's version of a plan for a very well-payed avenue, the VIP was advised
to reveal none of his motives. Eventually, however, the hapless visitor discovered his knavish
views and confided that it was vital to review the plans together to avoid a conflict. The VIP was
not convinced, and averred that he would have it vetoed by the vice president. This quite vexed
the visitor, who then vowed to invent an indestructible paving compound in order to avenge his
good name. The VIP found himself on the verge of a civil war with a visitor with whom he had
previously conversed easily. It was only due to his insufferable vanity that the inevitable division
arrived as soon as it did. Never again did the visitor converse with the vain VIP and they
remained divided forever.

Exercise 9-3: Finding V Sounds

CD 4 Track 30

Underline the five V sounds in this paragraph. The first one is marked for you. Don't forget "of."
Hello, my name is________________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to
learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

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130

Chapter 10. S or Z?
The sound of the letter S is [s] only if it follows an unvoiced consonant. Otherwise, it becomes a Z in
disguise. When an S follows a vowel, a voiced consonant, or another S, it turns into a [z]. The
following exercise will let you hear and practice S with its dual sound. There are many more Z
sounds in English than S sounds.

Exercise 10-1 : When S Becomes Z

CD 4 Track 31

Under Contrast, in the list that follows, notice how the voiced word is drawn out and then repeat the
word after me. Both voiced and unvoiced diphthongs have the underlying structure of the tone shift,
or the double stairstep, but the shift is much larger for the voiced ones.

Sam, a surly sergeant from Cisco, Texas, saw a sailor sit silently on a small seat reserved for
youngsters. He stayed for several minutes, while tots swarmed around. Sam asked the sailor to
cease and desist but he sneered in his face. Sam was so incensed that he considered it sufficient
incentive to sock the sailor. The sailor stood there for a second, astonished, and then strolled
away. Sam was perplexed, but satisfied, and the tots scampered like ants over to the see-saw.

Exercise 10-3: Allz Well That Endz Well
33

CD 4 Track

Repeat the Z sounds in the paragraph below.

A lazy Thursday at the zoo found the zebras grazing on zinnias, posing for pictures, and teasing
the zookeeper, whose nose was bronzed by the sun. The biggest zebra's name was Zachary, but
his friends called him Zack. Zack was a confusing zebra whose zeal for reason caused his
cousins, who were naturally unreasoning, to pause in their conversations. While they browsed,
he philosophized. As they grazed, he practiced zen. Because they were Zack's cousins, the zebras
said nothing, but they wished he would muzzle himself at times.
As mentioned on page 84, like sounds follow naturally. If one consonant is voiced, chances are,
the following plural S will be voiced as well. If it's unvoiced, the following sound will be as
well. In the past tense, S can be both voiced [z] and unvoiced [s] in some cases.

Exercise 10-4: Voiced and Unvoiced Endings in the Past Tense CD 4 Track 34
The following will explain the differences between four expressions that are similar in appearance but
different in both meaning and pronunciation.

S
Z

Meaning

Example

Pronunciation

Present passive verb

Chopsticks are used to eat rice.

[yūzd tu]

Simple past

I used chopsticks to eat rice.

[yūzd]

Past action
To be accustomed to

I used to eat rice.
I am used to eating rice.

[yūst tu]
[yūs tu]

Used to, depending on its position in a sentence, will take either a tense [ū] or a schwa. At the
end of a sentence, you need to say, ... more than I used tooo; in the middle of a sentence you can
say, He usta live there.
132

Exercise 10-5: Finding S and Z Sounds

CD 4 Track 35

Go through the paragraph and underline all of the [s] sounds. The first, [æksent] is marked for you.
Next, circle all of the [z] sounds, no matter how the word is written (is = [iz], as = [æz], and so on.)
Hello, my name iz_______________. I'm taking American æksent Training. There's a
lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

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T Practice reading the paragraph three times on your own, concentrating on strong Zs.

Exercise 10-4; Application Steps with S and Z

CD 4 Track 36

Build up the following sentence, adding each aspect one at a time.

Always be a little kinder than necessary.
1. Intonation
Always be a little kinder than necessary.
2. Word Groups
Always be a little kinder(pause) than necessary.
3. Liaisons
Always be(y)a little kinder tha(n)necessary.
4. [æ][ä][ə]
äweez be ə littəl kinder thən necəssary.
5. The American T
Always be a liddle kinder than necessary.
6. The American R
Always be a little kindər than necessεry.
7. Combination of concepts 1 through 6

äweez be(y)ə liddəl kindər(pause) thə(n)necəssεry.
133

Exercise 10-7: Your Own Application Steps with S and Z

CD 4 Track 37

Write your own sentence, and then build it up, adding each aspect one at a time.
1. Intonation
________________________________

2.

Word Groups
________________________________

3.

Liaisons

________________________________

4.

[æ] [a] [ə]
________________________________

5.

The American T

________________________________

6.

The American R
________________________________

7.

Combination of concepts 1 through 6
________________________________

134

Chapter 11. Tense and Lax Vowels
In this chapter, we tackle tense and lax vowels. This is the difference between [ā], tense, and [ε], lax,
[ē], tense, and [i], lax. We will start with tense vowels.

Exercise 11-1; Tense Vowels

CD 4 Track 38

Don't pay attention to spelling or meaning. Just remember, if you are in the ä column, they all have
the same ah sound. Repeat.

Go through the subsequent paragraph and mark all the tense vowels, starting with [ā] (there are 12
here). The first one is name [nεim], not [nεm]. The first [ē] sound (14) is the American. The same 5
[æ] sounds can be found as in Exercise 3-2 on page 74, plus the [œo] of sound. Pause the CD to do
the marking. Check your answer in the Answer Key, beginning on page 193.
Hello, my nāme is_______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a
lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on thē American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sæond good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

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Tense vowels use the lips and jaw muscles.

Exercise 11-3: Lax Vowels

CD 4 Track 40

As we saw in Chapter 8, these are the lax vowels.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

e

end
bet
kept
check
debt
fence
fell
get
help
held

i

it
bit
kiss
chick
did
fit
fill
gill
hit
hill

ü
book
could
foot
full
good
hook
hood

ə

un~
but
cut
chuck
does
fun
gut
hut
hull

ər

earn
burn
curt
church
dirt
first
furl
girl
hurt
hurl

Soft vowels are subtle variations of sound using the throat
muscles.
e slightly tease bet
i more relaxed bit
ü even more relaxed put
ə throat is completely relaxed but
136

Exercise 11-4: Lax Vowels Practice Paragraph

CD 4 Track 41

Again, go over this paragraph and mark the lax vowels, starting with [ε]. The first one (of about 12
possible) is in hello or American. The first [i] sound (of 9 to 22) may be found in is. (The numbers
are approximations because you may have already reduced the [ε] of hello and the [i] of is into
schwas.) Pause the CD to do the marking. Check your answer in the Answer Key, beginning on page
193.
Hello, my name is________________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a
lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use
the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to
pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and
they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is
to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 11-5: Take a High-Tech Tack

CD 4 Track 42

Repeat the following paragraph and words after me.
Sāy, Rāy, tāke a tack. A high-tack tack? No, Rāy, a high-tech tack, eight high-tech tacks, tāke them.
Then find a wāy to māke a plāce for the tacks on the dāy bed. Hey, you lāy the tacks on the pāper
plāce mat on the tāble, not on the dāy bed, Rāy. At your āge, why do you always māke the sāme
mistākes?
late lack
let
tāke
tack
tech
mate
mat
met
hāil Hal
hell
fāte
fat
fetch
cane
can
Ken

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Exercise 11 -6: Pick a Peak

CD 4 Track 43

Repeat the following paragraph and words after me. Boldfaced elements represent the [ē] sound.
The [i] is only marked with underscoring.
People who pick peaks weekly seem to need to appear deep in order to be distinguished from
mere pea pickers. Peter, a champion peak picker, thought he'd be even neater if he were the
deepest peak picker in Peoria, Phoenix, and New Zealand. On his peak peak picking week,
though, Peter, a peak picker's peak picker, realized that he was not deep. This is not easy for a
peak picker to admit and it pitched Peter into a pit of peak picking despair. He was pitiful for six
weeks and then lifted himself to hitherto unrevealed personal peaks.
eat / it
sheep / ship
seat / sit
neat / nit
feet / fit
sleep / slip
137

Grammar in a Bigger Nutshell
In Chapter 1 we studied compound nouns (Ex. 1-24 to 1-37) and complex verb tenses (Ex. 1-38).
Now, we are going to put them together and practice the intonation of some complicated sentences.

Exercise 11-7: Compound Nouns and Complex Verbs

CD 4 Track 44

No matter how complex the verb gets, remember to follow the basic Dogs eat bones intonation,
where you stress the nouns. For the noun intonation, stick with the basic set phrase or description
rule. Let's build up one complex noun for the subject, and another one for the object, starting with
The millionaires were impressed by the equipment.

Subject

Object

The millionaires
the equipment.
The elderly millionaires
eavesdropping equipment.
electronic eavesdropping equipment.
The elderly Texas millionaires
The two elderly Texas millionaires...sophisticated electronic eavesdropping equipment.
The two elderly Texas millionaires were impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment.
The two elderly Teksəs millyənair zwerim presst by the
səfistəkaydədəlektränik ēvzdräppiŋə kwipmənt.
zərim prest
1. The two elderly Texas millionaires're impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment.
zwərim prest
2. The two elderly Texas millionaires were impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment.
zər beeyingim prest
3. At the moment, the two elderly Texas millionaires're being impressed by the sophisticated
electronic eavesdropping equipment.
zəl beeyim prest
4. The two elderly Texas millionaires'll be impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment.
zəd beeyim prest
5. The two elderly Texas millionaires'd be impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment if there were more practical applications for it.
zədəv binim prest
6. The two elderly Texas millionaires'd've been impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment if there had been more practical applications for it.
zədəv bin so im prest
7. The two elderly Texas millionaires thaťve been so impressed by the sophisticated
electronic eavesdropping equipment are now researching a new program.

22. The two elderly Texas millionaires must be impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment because they are considering a huge order.
məsdəv binim prest

23. The two elderly Texas millionaires must have been impressed by the sophisticated
electronic eavesdropping equipment because they ordered so much of it.
cən bee(y)im prest

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24. The two elderly Texas millionaires can be impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment because they don't know much about surveillance.
cæn(t) bee(y)im prest

25. The two elderly Texas millionaires can't be impressed by the sophisticated electronic
eavesdropping equipment because they invented most of the state of the art technology currently
available.

Exercise 11-8: Your Own Compound Nouns

CD 4 Track 45

Pause the CD and build up your own compound nouns, both subject and object.
Subject
Object
_______________________________

________________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

_______________________________

140

Exercise 11-9: Your Compound Nouns and Complex Verbs

CD 4 Track 46

Using your compound nouns from Ex. 11-8, choose a verb and put it through all the changes.
Remember that it helps to have a verb that starts with a vowel. Add explanatory words to round out
the sentence, complete the thought, and support the verb.
eat
ate

1.
2.

are eating

3.

will eat

4.

would eat

5.

would have eaten

6.

that have eaten

7.

have eaten

8.

had eaten

9.

will have eaten

10.

ought to eat

11.

should eat

12.

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should not eat
should have eaten

13.
14.

should not have

15.

could eat

16.

could not eat

17.

could have eaten

18.

could not have

19.

might eat

20.

might have eaten

21.

must eat

22.

must have eaten

23.

can eat

24.

can't eat

25.

141

Exercise 11-10: Practical Application—U.S./Japan Trade Friction
47

CD 4 Track

Listen to the following excerpt, and compare the two versions.
Forty years after the end of World War II, Japan and the U.S. are again engaged in conflict.
Trade frictions, which began as minor irritants in an otherwise smooth relationship in the 1960s,
have gradually escalated over the years.
The conflict is more dangerous than it appears because its real nature is partially hidden. It
masquerades as a banal and sometimes grubby dispute over widgets with the stakes being
whether American or Japanese big business makes more money.
In truth, the issue is strategic and geopolitical in nature. Japan is once again challenging the U.S.,
only this time the issue is not China or the Pacific, but world industrial and technological leadership
and the military and economic powers which have always been its corollaries.
*By permission of U.S. News and World Report
Fordee yir zæftr(pause)thee(y)end'v wrl dwor too,(pause)J'pæn'n thə US(pause)ärə genin gεij din(pause)
cänfl'ct.(pause)Trəid fr'ksh'nz,(pause)w'ch b'gæn'z mynr rirrət'nts(pause)in'n ətherwise(pause) smooth
r'lεish'nship in the näinteen siksdeez(pause)h'v græjəlee(y)εscəladəd(pause)dover thə yirz.
Thə känfl'k d'z mor dεinjer's thəni dəpirz b'kəzəts ree(y)əl nεichyr'z pärshəlee h'dd'n. It mæskerεid zəzə
bənälən səmtäimz grəbee d'spyu dover wij'ts withthə stεiks be(y)ing wεtherə mεrəkəner Jæpəneez big
bizn's mεiks mor mənee.
In truth, thee(y)ishu(w)iz strəteejəkən jee(y)opəlidəkələn nεichyer. Jəpænəz wən səgεn chælənjing thə
you(w)ess, only this täim, thee(y)ishu(w)iz nät Chäinə or thə Pəs'fək, bət wr rolld'in dəsstree(y)l'n
tεknəläjəkəl leedershipən the milətεree(y)ənεkənämək pæwrz w'ch h'väweez bi n'ts korəlεreez.

The Letter A
You've seen many examples of illogical spelling by now, and the letter A is a major contributor.
A can be:
Note People who speak Chinese frequently pronounce [a], [æ] and [ε] the same. The common
denominator of the three sounds is [ε]. When a Chinese speaker says mate, mat, met, it can sound
like met, met, met. If this happens to be your case, in order to say common words like make and
man correctly, first practice putting them on the stairsteps and drawing them out. Don't be afraid

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to exaggerate. You can even draw them out with a final unvoiced consonant.
[ε] parallel
|o] war
[æ] cat
[ä] part
[ä] make
[ə] final

prəväid innernet æksεs tə thouz hu cæn(d)əford it; ənd if nät, why nät. Will bəgin with Mr. Keez.
I think this iz ənəthər keis whεer pälətishənz try də jəmpän thə bændwægən əv səmthing thæťs going än in thee(y)
əcänəmee, sou evreebədeez gənnə think thət they ækchəlee hæv səmthing tə do with thə rəzəlt when they dont. Thεrz nou
need fr this. Wiräl reddy seeing æot thεr prəpouzəlz fr thə distrəbyushən əv free PeeCees, nät beis dän səm pälətishən
meiking ə judgment ən spending tæxpeiyer mənee, bət beis dän thə self-intrst əv thouz hu(w)är involvd inə nyu world, ə
nyu world ən which p'rtisəpeishən iz thə kee də präfit— ənd in which thεr iz ækchəlee ə sträng insentiv əməng thouz hu
prtisəpεidin thə präivət sektər tə giv æksεss tə indəvijəls sou thæt they c'n impruv their äpərtyunədeez fr präfit, fr
infərmeishn shεring. Thæts whəts älredee bin going än—it will kəntinyu. Thεr iz nou need fr thə gəvərmənt tə prətend
thæt it needs tə teik leedership hir. I think thæts jəst pəlidəkəl päsjuring.
Senədər Mə(k)kein.
I bəleev th't wee du hæv ə präbləm. æn thædiz thət thεrizə growing gæp bətween thə hævz ənd hæv-näts in əmεrəkə,
thouz thədr εibl də tεik pärdin this infərmeishn teknäləjee ən thouz th't hævnt. Wee took ə mεijər step forwərd when wee
dəsaidəd də wäi(y)r evree skool ən lybrεree in əmerikə tə thee(y)innərnet. Thætsə güd prougrəm. Wee hæv tə hæv step tu,
three, ən four, which meenz güd əkwipmənt, güd teechərz ənd güd clæssroomz. No, I wüdn du(w)it d'rektlee. Bət thεrz
läts əv weiz th'chyu kən inkerəj korpəreishnz, who in their own self-intrest, wüd wänt tə prəvaid... wüd rəseev tæks
benəfits, wüd rəseev kredit, ənd mεny əthər weiz fr beeing invəlvd in thə skoolz, in əpgreiding thə kwälədee əv
əkwipmənt th't thei hæv, thə kwälədee əv thə styudənts ənd thεrby prəvaiding ə məch-needed well-treind wərkfors.
Thæng kyu. Mr. Forbz.
The president tomorrow night is expected in his State of the Union message to propose federal subsidies to help lowincome families overcome the so-called digital divide. Is it an appropriate use of government funds to hand out
computers and provide Internet access to those who can't afford it, and if not, why not? We'll begin with Mr. Keyes.
"I think this is another case where politicians try to jump on the bandwagon of something that's going on in the economy,
so everybody's gonna think that they actually have something to do with the result when they don't. There's no need for
this. We're already seeing out there proposals for the distribution of free PCs, not based on some politician making a
judgment and spending taxpayer money, but based on the self-interest of those who are involved in a new world, a new
world in which participation is the key to profit—and in which there is actually a strong incentive among those who
participate on the private sector to give access to individuals so that they can improve their opportunities for profit, for
information sharing. That's what's already been going on—it will continue. There is no need for the government to
pretend that it needs to take leadership here. I think that's just political posturing."
Senator McCain.
"I believe that we do have a problem. And that is that there is a growing gap between the haves and have-nots in
America, those that are able to take part in this information technology and those that haven't. We took a major step
forward when we decided to wire every school and library in America to the Internet. That's a good program. We have to
have step two, three, and four, which means good equipment, good teachers, and good classrooms. No, I wouldn't do it
directly. But there's lots of ways that you can encourage corporations, who in their own self-interest, would want to
provide ... would receive tax benefits, would receive credit, and many other ways for being involved in the schools, in
upgrading the quality of equipment that they have, the quality of the students, and thereby providing a much-needed
well-trained workforce."
Thank you. Mr. Forbes.
144

Chapter 12. Nasal Consonants

CD 4 Track 49

We now turn to the three consonants whose sound comes out through the nose—M, N, and the
NG combination. They each have one thing in common, their sound is blocked in the mouth in
one of three locations. Two of them, N and NG, you can't even see, as with R, so they're hard to
pick up on.
[m] is the easiest and most obvious. Like [b], the lips come together, the air can't get out, so it
has to come out through the nose.

Стр. 130 из 185

[n] is in a position similar to [t], but it can't be at all tense. It has to be completely relaxed, filling
the whole mouth, touching the insides of all the teeth, leaving no room for the air to escape,
except by the nose.

[ng] is back in the throat with [g]. The back of the tongue presses back, and again, the air comes
out through the nose.

145

Exercise 12-1: Nasal Consonants

CD 4 Track 50

We are going to contrast nasals with regular consonant sounds. Repeat after me.

Initial
m/b
n/d

ng/g

me
kneels
long eels

bee
deals
geese

Middle
llama
Lana
longer

lobber
lauder
logger

Exercise 12-2: Ending Nasal Consonants

Final
ROM
Ron
wrong

rob
rod
log

CD 4 Track 51

Here we will focus on the final sounds. Repeat after me.

M

N

sum/some
bum
turn
dumb
psalm

sun/son
bun
ton
done
sawn

rumə

runə

NG

rungə
sung
bung
tongue
dung
song

Exercise 12-3: Reading Nasal Consonant Sounds

CD 4 Track 52

We will read the following paragraph. Repeat after me.
The young King Kong can sing along on anything in the kingdom, as long as he can bring a
strong ringing to the changing songs. He can only train on June mornings when there is a full

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moon, but June lends itself to singing like nothing else. Ding Dong, on the other hand, is not a
singer; he cannot sing for anything. He is a man often seen on the green lawn on the Boston
Open, where no one ever, ever sings.

Exercise 12-4: Finding [n] and [ng] Sounds

CD 4 Track 53

Find and mark the final [n] and [ng] sounds.
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a
lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
146

Chapter 13. Throaty Consonants
There are five consonant sounds that are produced in the throat: [h] [k] [g] [ng] [er]. Because R
can be considered a consonant, its sound is included here. For pronunciation purposes, however,
elsewhere this book treats it as a semivowel.

Exercise 13-1: Throaty Consonants

CD 4 Track 54

Here we will read across the lists of initial, middle, and final consonants.

Initial

Final

[h]

haw
hood
he'll
hat

Middle

[k]

caw

accident

rink

could
keel
cat

accent
include
actor

rack
cork
block

gaw

regale

rug

good
geese
gat

ingrate
agree
organ

hog
big
log

Long Island

Bronx

wrong

a long wait
Dang you!
being honest

inky
larynx
English

daring
averaging
clung

raw

error

rare

roof
real
rat

arrow
mirror
carbon

air
injure
prefer

[g]

[ng]

[r]

reheat
in half
unhinge
unheard of

147

Exercise 13-2: The Letter X

CD 4 Track 55

The letter X can sound like either KS or GZ, depending on the letter that follows the X and where the

"Help!" hissed the harried intern. "We have to hurry! The halfwit who was hired to help her
home hit her hard with the Honda. She didn't have a helmet on her head to protect her, so she has
to have a checkup ahead of the others."

K

The computer cursor careened across the screen, erasing key characters as it scrolled past. The
technician was egually confused by the computer technology and the complicated keyboard, so
he clicked off the computer, cleaned off his desk, accepted his paycheck, and caught a taxicab
for the airport, destination Caracas.

G

The Wizard of Og
There was a man named...
Who was his best friend?
Where did he live?
What was his house made of?
Who was his neighbor?

Og
Dog
Bog
Log
Frog

148

What did he drink?
Eggnog
What did he do for fun?
Jog
What is the weather in his swamp? Fog

NG

The stunning woman would not have a fling with the strong young flamingo trainer until she had
a ring on her finger. He was angry because he longed for her. She inquired if he were hungry, but
he hung his head in a funk. The flamingo trainer banged his fist on the fish tank and sang out,
"Dang it, I'm sunk without you, Punkin!" She took in a long, slow lungful of air and sighed.

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R

War is horrible. During any war, terrible things occur. The result is painful memories and
disfiguring scars for the very people needed to rebuild a war-torn country. The leaders of every
country must learn that wars are never won, lives are always lost, and history is doomed to
repeat itself unless we all decide to live in harmony with our brothers and sisters.

Exercise 13-4: Glottal Consonant Practice Paragraph

CD 4 Track 57

Pause the CD and go through the paragraph and mark the [h], [k], [g], [ng], and [r] sounds.
Hello, my name is_______________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a
lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying
attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of
Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on,
but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
149

Telephone Tutoring
Final Diagnostic Analysis

CD 4 Track 58

After a year, you're ready for the final analysis. If you're studying on your own, please contact
toll-free (800) 457-4255 or www.americanaccent.com for a referral to a qualified telephone
analyst. The diagnostic analysis is designed to evaluate your current speech patterns to let you
know where your accent is standard and nonstandard.
150

The Nasdaq composite index on Monday suffered its biggest loss in three weeks after a wave of selling slammed Internet and other tech
shares in Asia and Europe overnight—suggesting many investors are increasingly nervous about tech shares' current heights. The
Nasdaq index ended down 141.38 points, or 2.8%, at 4,907.24, though it recovered from a morning sell-off that took it down as much as
209 points from Friday's record high. Biotechnology stocks were particularly hard hit. The broader market was also lower, though the Dow
Jones industrial average managed to inch up 18.31 points to 9,947.13.

We will be reviewing the concepts that form the basis of American speech—intonation, word
groups, the staircase, and liaisons, as well as pronunciation. Let's briefly review each item in order.
This time around, there will be no explanation.

He looks like Bob, but he's not.
He knows Bob, but he doesn't trust him.
He can't trust him. He can't do it.

Review Exercise 1-7: Individual Practice
151

1.
2.
3.
4.

Convey the information that it is Bob. +
Convey the opinion that he only resembles Bob. +
Convey the different feelings that someone has about Bob. +
Convey the fact that trust is a problem with Bob. +

Review Exercise 1-8: Meaning of "Pretty," "Sort of," "Kind of," and "Little"
Question: How was it?
Answer: 1.
It was pretty expensive. It was pretty expensive.
2
It was sort of funny. It was sort of funny.
3.
It was kind of rude. It was kind of rude.
4.
It was a little late. It was a little late.

Review Exercise 1-9: Inflection
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Her boyfriend almost never sends her flowers, but mine does.
Her boyfriend almost never sends her flowers, but her sisters always do.
Her boyfriend almost never sends her flowers, but every once in a while he does.
Her boyfriend almost never sends her flowers, no matter what!
Her boyfriend almost never sends her flowers, but he planted a lot in her garden.
Her boyfriend almost never sends her flowers, but he never forgets Mother's Day!
Her boyfriend almost never sends her flowers, but he showers her with other gifts.

Review Exercise 1-10: Individual Practice
1. Indicate that her boyfriend prefers live plants to cut ones. (5) +
2. Indicate that her sisters are attentive to her horticultural needs. (2) +
3. Indicate that her boyfriend gives her non-floral presents. (7) +
4. Indicate that my boyfriend is good in the flower department. (1) +
5. Indicate that it is a true rarity for her boyfriend to send flowers. (4) +
6. Indicate that there is actually a slim chance that he might send flowers. (3) +
7. Indicate that her boyfriend remembers to send flowers to his mother. (6) +

Review Exercise 1-11: Translation
Pause the CD and translate Her boyfriend almost never sends her flowers into your native language.

Review Exercise 1-15: Application of Stress
Think the United Auto Workers can beat Caterpillar Inc. in their bitter contract battle? Before placing your bets, talk to
Paul Branan, who can't wait to cross the picket line at Caterpillar's factory in East Peoria. Branan, recently laid off by a
rubber-parts plant where he earned base pay of $6.30 an hour, lives one block from a heavily picketed gate at the Cat
complex. Now he's applying to replace one of 12,600 workers who have been on strike for the past five months.
"Seventeen dollars an hour and they don't want to work?" asks Branan. "I don't want to take another guy's job, but I'm
hurting, too."

Review Exercise 1-17: Staircase Intonation Practice
On a separate piece of paper, draw a staircase and put each word where it belongs.

Review Exercise 1-18: Reading with Staircase Intonation
Think the United Auto Workers can beat Caterpillar Inc. in their bitter contract battle? Before placing your bets, talk to
Paul Branan, who can't wait to cross the picket line at Caterpillar's factory in East Peoria. Branan, recently laid off
by a rubber-parts plant where he earned base pay of $6.30 an hour, lives one block from a heavily picketed gate at the
Cat complex. Now he's applying to replace one of 12,600 workers who have been on strike for the past five months.
"Seventeen dollars an hour and they don't want to work?" asks Branan. "I don't want to take another guy's job, but I'm
hurting, too."

Review Exercise 1-19: Spelling and Numbers
CEO
ATM
IRS
BMW
JFK
M&M

See Eee Oh
Ei Tee Em
Ai Are Ess
Bee Em Dubbayou
Jay Eff Kay
emanem

Catch
Nate

See Ei Tee See Aitch
En Ei Tee Eee

Area Code
Zip Code
Date

213
90291
9/15/88

Review Exercise 1-20: Sound/Meaning Shifts

icy
achy
history
interest
orange
eunuch

I see.
a key
his tree
in trust
arrange
unique

attic
comedy
paradise
selfish
underwear
ambulance

Review Exercise 1-21: Squeezed-Out Syllables

actually
business
comfortable
different
every
favorite
family
vegetable
153

Review Exercise 1-27: Descriptive Phrase Story—Snow White and The Seven
Dwarves
Snow White was a beautiful princess. On the castle wall, there was an enchanted mirror owned by an old
woman—a wicked witch! "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" When the mirror answered,
"Snow Whitet," the young girl was banished from her glorious castle to live in the dark woods. She met seven
dwarves, and they lived in a small hut. The evil witch tried to kill the poor girl with a poisoned apple, but she was
saved by a handsome prince. They had a beautiful wedding and lived happily ever after.

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154

Review Exercise 1-28: Sentence Stress with Set Phrases

1.
2.
3.

Noun

Noun/Adj.

Set Phrase

It's wild.

It's a wildcat.

It's an egg.
It's a car.

It's a timer.
It's a crash.

It's an egg timer.
It's a car crash.

It's a cat.

Review Exercise 1-29: Making Set Phrases

Review Exercise 1-30: Set Phrase Story—Our Mailman
Our mailman loves junk food. At dinnertime, he has potato chips and a hot dog. He puts some soy sauce on his
eggplant, but it gives him a stomachache. For dessert, he has a watermelon, a grapefruit, and some ice cream.
Afterwards, he leaves the dinner table and goes to the bookshelf in his bedroom. He takes down a notebook and
does his homework. He puts a clean pillowcase on his pillow, covers up with the bedspread, and goes to
dreamland.

The schoolkids took the subway downtown for their field trip on urban living.
Our local sheriff had a bumper sticker on his back bumper.
The homeowners thought they had to pay property taxes to the federal government.
There were small tremblers after the earthquake in San Francisco.
The Geology Club went on a camping trip to Mount Hood.
The award ceremony at the Hilton Hotel lasted for two hours.
Bob Smith took his surfboard out on a stormy day near Diamond Head.
The boy scouts pitched their pup tents on the mountaintop in the pouring rain.
It's a little late to ask the babysitter to stay over night.
The sixth graders were reading comic books and drinking chocolate milk.

It's eroding them.
It'll erode them if it keeps up.
Iťd erode them if it kept up.

itsərouding'm
idələroud'm
idəroud'm

Iťd've eroded them if iťd kept up.
The one that's eroded them is quite odd.
It's eroded them for eons.
Iťd eroded them before the last ice age.
Iťll've eroded them by the end of the millennium.
It ought to erode them.
It should erode them.
It shouldn't erode them.
It should have eroded them.
It shouldn'ťve eroded them.
It could erode them.
It couldn't erode them.
It could have eroded them.
It couldn't have eroded them.
It might erode them.

idəvəroud'd'm
the wənthətsəroud'd'm (is...).
itsəroud'd'm
idəroud'd'm
idələvəroud'd'm
idädə eeroud'm
it sh'dəroud'm
it sh'dn•nəroud'm
it sh'dəvəroud'd'm
it sh'dn•nəvəroud'd'm
it c'dəroud'm
it c'dn•nəroud'm
it c'dəvəroud'd'm
it c'dn•nəvəroud'd'm
it mydəroud'm

It might have eroded them.
It must erode them.
It must have eroded them.
It can erode them.
It can't erode them.

it mydəvəroud'd'm
it məss dəroud'm
it məsdəvəroud'd'm
it c'nəroud'm
it cæn(d)əroud'm

Review Execise 1-40: Intonation in Your Own Sentence
On a separate piece of paper, write the Review Exercise as on pages 38-40.

mountains.
The floods thaťve eroded the
mountains.
The floods'll erode the mountains.
The floods'd erode the mountains.
The floods'd've eroded the
mountains.
The floods've eroded the
mountains.
The floods'd eroded the mountains.
The floods'll've eroded the
mountains.
The floods'd erode the mountains.
The floods ought to erode the
mountains.
The floods can erode the mountains.
The floods can't erode the
mountains.

Review Exercise 1-44: Building an Intonation Sentence
I saw him. + I saw him again. + I saw him at work again. + I think I saw him at work again. + I really think I saw
him at work again. + I really think I saw him at work again in the yard. + I really think I saw him at work again
in the yard behind the house.

Review Exercise 1-45: Building Your Own intonation Sentences
On a separate piece of paper, build up your own sentences.

Review Exercise 1-46: Regular Transitions of Nouns and Verbs
an accent
a contract
an insert
an object
progress

Review Exercise 1-48; Regular Transitions of Adjectives and Verbs
1. Would you please alternate seats with the other alternate?
2. They signed a contract in order to contract their services.
3. Who could object to progress?
4. The unidentified flying object progressed slowly across the night sky.
5. We need a written estimate in order to estimate the payment.

The president hoped to veto the bill.
Deposit it to my account, please.
Their boss told them to wait.
The coach showed us how to pitch.
Everyone stared at the mess.
Stay at my house for a while.
Jim looked at his watch impatiently.
He's at his brother's.
They said it took too long.
Do you think it turned out?
Let's keep it in perspective.
Can we keep it for another day?
This'll do for now.
The students all worked for hours.
We learned it from the coach.
The tourists came from all over.
We made it just in time.
The place was in an uproar.
It was an odd remark.
He's an open book to me.
Everyone sat and chatted for a while.
It was getting later and later.
We had two or three options.
No one could see or hear anything.
The neighbors are complaining again.
Whose shoes are these?
The door's on your left.
Are you on your way yet?
There's another one later.
One of them is outside.
The other one's in here.
Did he pass the test?
Let's take a cab.
What's the tallest building in America?
Would you like a piece of pie?
They'll be gone for a couple of weeks.
Do you think you can do it?
Can you believe it?!
We think he'd never done it before.
They'd always done it that way.
Why would he tell her?
I don't know if he'd agree.

Who was on the phone?
[hoo w'zän th' foun]
The drummer was off beat.
[th' drəmr w'zäf beet]
Let's
see
what
he
wants.
[let see wədee wänts]
What
Who knows what it is?
[hoo nouz w'd'd'z]
Some of it got in my eyes.
[s'm'v't gädin my äiz]
Some
Somebody took my place.
[s'mb'dee tük my pleis]
Review Exercise 1-54: Intonation and Pronunciation of "That"
[th' greips the dee bät wr sweet]
Relative Pronoun The grapes that he bought were sweet.
We
hope
that
you'll
be
there.
[we houp the chüll bee there]
Conjunction
Don't do that!
[doun(t)du thæt]
Demonstrative
I know that you'll like that car that you
[äi nou the chüll like thæt cär the chew
Combination
bought.
bät]

Was

Review Exercise 1-55: Crossing Out Reduced Sounds
Think the United Auto Workers can beat Caterpillar Inc. in their bitter contract battle? Before placing your bets,
talk to Paul Branan, who can't wait to cross the picket line at Caterpillar's factory in East Peoria. Branan,
recently laid off by a rubber-parts plant where he earned base pay of $6.30 an hour, lives one block from a
heavily picketed gate at the Cat complex. Now he's applying to replace one of 12,600 workers who have been on
strike for the past five months. "Seventeen dollars an hour and they don't want to work?" asks Branan. "I don't
want to take another guy's job, but I'm hurting, too."

Can you see it through to the end? _______________________________
Be available for the other opportunity in my office. __________________
He always wants to offer to go over it again. ________________________

Review Exercise 2-11: T, D, S, or Z + Y Liaison Practice
1.
2.
3.
4.

We're glad that your homework's done. ___________________________
Would you help me with this? __________________________________
Do you miss your old friends? __________________________________
Where's your brother? _________________________________________

Review Exercise 2-12: Finding Liaisons and Glides
Think the United Auto Workers can beat Caterpillar Inc. in their bitter contract battle? Before placing your bets,
talk to Paul Branan, who can't wait to cross the picket line at Caterpillar's factory in East Peoria. Branan,
recently laid off by a rubber-parts plant where he earned base pay of $6.30 an hour, lives one block from a
heavily picketed gate at the Cat complex. Now he's applying to replace one of 12,600 workers who have been on
strike for the past five months. "Seventeen dollars an hour and they don't want to work?" asks Branan. "I don't
want to take another guy's job, but I'm hurting, too."
161

Review Exercise 3-1: Word-by-Word and in a Sentence
that
than
as
at
and
have
had
can

Stressed
thæt
thæn
æz
æt
ænd
hæv
hæd
cæn

th't
th'n
'z
't
'nd
h'v
h'd
c'n

Unstressed
thət
thən
əz
ət
ənd
həv
həd
cən

We think th't we can get there in time.
It's harder th'n she thought.
It was'z flat'z a pancake.
We jumped't the chance.
The speaker went on'n on.
How h'v you been?
I wish we h'd been there.
Let me know if you c'n be there.

talk to Paul Branan, who can't wait to cross the picket line at Caterpillar's factory in East Peoria. Branan,
recently laid off by a rubber-parts plant where he earned base pay of $6.30 an hour, lives one block from a
heavily picketed gate at the Cat complex. Now he's applying to replace one of 12,600 workers who have been on
strike for the past five months. "Seventeen dollars an hour and they don't want to work?" asks Branan. "I don't
want to take another guy's job, but I'm hurting, too."

Review Exercise 3-5: Reading the [æ] Sound
Fæst Dæncing Næncy
We plan to have a dance on the last Saturday in January. It's the last chance for a dance. We practice at a dance
class with Max and Nancy. Max dances fast, but Nancy dances best. We are happy about the dance, but Max is sad
that Sally can't dance. Her ankle is in a cast!

Review Exercise 3-6: Reading the [ä] Sound
Päul's Täll Däughter
Tom watches Paul's tall daughter play softball and volleyball. Paul's daughter is called Molly. Molly starts playing
softball in March and ends in August. She plays volleyball in October. Tom is Molly's godfather. They have a lot in
common. Tom bought Molly a ball. When Molly saw the ball, she tossed it in the air. "Thanks a lot, Tom!"
162

Review Exercise 3-7: Reading the [ə] Sound
S'nday 'n M'nday
Monday is such a wonderful day. But Sunday is much more wonderful than Monday! We have so much fun on
Sunday, and we must run on Monday. What trouble ... Doug must run on Sunday and Monday. Doug has no fun.

Review Exercise 4-1 : Stressed and Unstressed T
paternal

pattern

critique

critic

Review Exercise 4-3: Rule 1—Top of the Staircase
1.
2.
3.

Tell Tina's tailor to take two tucks in the top of Tim's trousers tomorrow.
We try and try, but Todd still tells us to try harder.
Terry had a tingling in her toes until the doctor took her temperature.

Review Exercise 4-4: Rule 2—Middle of the Staircase

1.

What a totally naughty little daughter!

[wədə toudəlee nädee liddle dädr]

2.
3.

Matty got a little cottage in the city.
Letty bought a lot of bottles for Katie.

Review Exercise 5-9: Bill and Ellie
Bill still calls Ellie all the time. He'll really be glad when she calls back, but it may be a while. He slowly dials the
telephone for the twelfth time. Trill, trill, trill. No luck. Well, Ellie will feel ill when Bill is in the hospital He might
fall from the windowsill. "Ellie? Hello! Are you well?" Saved by the bell!

Review Exercise 5-11 : Final L Practice
1.
2.
3.

üll

ell

æwl

ell

ale

oll

eel

dl

bull
pull
full

ball
pall
fall

bowel
Powell
foul

bell
pell
fell

bale
pail
fail

bowl
pole
foal

Beal
peel
feel

bottle
poodle
fetal

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Review Exercise 5-12: A Frontal Lobotomy?
I'd rather have a frontal lobotamy than a bottle in front of me, chortled the gentle little man, or was it the little
gentleman? But anyway, it'll take a battle to test his mettle. What'll he do to get a handle on the whole kit and
caboodle? I don't want to meddle, but what if he flies off the handle again? Out of luck, that's what!

Review Exercise 6-6: Roy the Rancher
Roy's car will arrive around three in the afternoon. Gary will rest before they ride around the ranch together in the
Ford. Gary's a grape grower in Northern California, and Roy's a rancher in Southern California. They were friends in
Paris at the Sorbonne for four years. Roy and Gary had an orange grove and an apple orchard in Barstow, but the
oranges were horrible and the apple trees were worse. They roamed around Europe for several years until Gary's
marriage. He married Sarah in Bakersfield and had four children: Rachel, Rudy, Randy, and Harry. Harry was a
fairly rude boy and he created rather a lot of trouble between Gary and Sarah. Gary ordered Harry to shape up or
forget working in the yard for extra money. Harry said he was sorry and the group became friends again. After a long
separation, Gary heard from his friend, Roy. Roy was driving through Fresno and wanted to get together with Gary's
family. Everyone gathered around the fireplace to wait for Gary's old friend. Gary, Sarah, Rachel, Rudy, Randy,
and Harry are sitting in a row near the garage. Roy's car will arrive around three in the afternoon.

Review Exercise L: Three Word Phrase Story—The Amazing Rock Soup
A tired young hiker was striding through the thick, dark forest when he came upon a gnarled old crone standing before
a small stone hut in a sunny little clearing. "My poor old stomach is really very empty," he thought. "I hope this old
landlady can spare a little food." Sensing what he was about to say, she snapped, "No! I have barely enough for
myself!" "My good woman," he said, "On the contrary! I'd like to cook you a sumptuously rich dinner...of rock
soup!" She was naturally very suspicious, but she let him in. He boiled some clear, fresh water, added three clean
rocks, and hung the dented old kettle in the old fireplace. He tasted the mysterious liquid concoction. "This is truly
delicious," he declared, "but it would be so much better with just one little vegetable." She begrudgingly gave him a
small limp carrot and two dry onions. "Yum," he said happily. "But if only ..." Bit by bit, he cajoled the lonely
housewife into making a savory stewpot. The two of them sat down, smiled at each other, and enjoyed a fabulous
dinner together.

It's a lighthouse.
It's an old lighthouse.
It's a really old lighthouse.
He's a lighthouse keeper.
He's an old lighthouse keeper.
He's a really old lighthouse keeper.

Review Exercise 7-1: The Thing

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This is the thing that they told them about this Thursday. This thing or that thing? This thing. Actually, there are two of
them. Both of these things were with the three other things there in the theater. They're worth three thousand dollars.
Ruth and her mother think that they are worth more than that, though, unless they break, and then they are worthless.
Altogether worthless to them. That would bother Ruth's brother, mother and father on their birthday, the thirtieth of this
month. Ruth, Ethel, and Beth have a rule of thumb about birthdays, which is to stay together, through thick and thin,
whether it's worth it or not. And that's the thing.
166

Even if it's raining, they'll go.
We've been growing beans.
You made a deal for dill pickles.

Review Exercise 8-6: Middle "I" List
similar
animal

typical
chemistry

president
experiment

episode
security

beautiful
technical

ability
monitor

Review Exercise 8-10: [ü] Paragraph
You could've pushed, you could've pulled. You should've pushed and pulled, by hook or by crook, to take a good
look at that book. It stood a full foot tall, propped up on the cushion at the Book Nook. Now, I'm all shook up,
sugar!

Review Exercise 8-11: [u] Paragraph
As a rule, you and Sue Woo are truly too cool—if only you knew how cool you two choose to be at school or at the
movies. Lou blew his cool on Tuesday while perusing the newspaper for the truth about who flew the coop from
the boot camp, including the lieutenant. Who knew the truth?

Fred forgot to fry fish on Friday.
Few friends fail to fight.
Freedom fighters fight for freedom.
Only a fool feeds fugu to friends.
Feel free to laugh if it's funny.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

1.

2.
3.
4.
5.

What were the women doing in the woods?
How would I know?
When was Willy's worst weekend?
Why would we wear warm wool?
Where were we when we woke up?

It's evident that Vera was very valuable.
Cliff Claven was available for every version.
The navy revoked his visa for obvious reasons.
Beavers give the environment very valuable dams.
Caves leave me cold, but I love to dive.

Review Exercise 10-1: S or Z?
z

s

ice
ace
fleece

s
dust
race
muscle

eyes
A's
fleas

z
does
rays
muzzle

Review Exercise 10-2: Sally at the Seashore
It's so silly to see Sally sell seashells at the seashore. Sally and her sister, Sue, can sell seventy-six apiece every Saturday
and Sunday in August and September, but their price must decrease or their sales will sink.

Review Exercise 11-7: Compound Nouns and Complex Verbs
invendə
1. The wily old lighthouse keepers invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme once a season.
invenədə
2. The wily old lighthouse keepers invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme last year.
zərinvending
3. The wily old lighthouse keepers're inventing a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme again.
zəlinvendə
4. The wily old lighthouse keepers'll invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme if they aren't afraid of being
caught and sent to prison.
zədinvendə
5. The wily old lighthouse keepers'd invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme if they weren't afraid of being
caught and sent to prison.
zədəvinvenədə
6. The wily old lighthouse keepers'd've invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme if they hadn't been
afraid of being caught and sent to prison.

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zədəvinvenədə
7. The wily old lighthouse keepers thaťve invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme are languishing in
Club Fed at the moment.
169
zəvinvenədə
8. The wily old lighthouse keepers've invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme for the tenth year in
a row.
zədinvenədə
9. The wily old lighthouse keepers had invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme long before
multilevel marketing became popular.
zələvinvenədə
10. The wily old lighthouse keepers'll've invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme by the time they
get back from checking their off-shore bank accounts.
zädə invends
11. The wily old lighthouse keepers ought to invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme to handle the
overflow cash from their many nefarious enterprises.
shüdin vendə
12. The wily old lighthouse keepers should invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme to stash their illgotten gains.
shüdn•nin vendə
13. The wily old lighthouse keepers shouldn't invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme in this anticrime climate.
shüdə vinvendə
14. The wily old lighthouse keepers should've invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme while they
were in the witness protection plan.
shüdn•nəvin venedə
15. The wily old lighthouse keepers shouldn't've invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme while
they were being monitored by the FBI.
cüdin vendə
16. The wily old lighthouse keepers could invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme once a year for a
hundred years and never run out of ideas.
cüdn•nin vendə
17. The wily old lighthouse keepers couldn't invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme even if their
lives depended on it.
cüdə vinvenədə
18. The wily old lighthouse keepers could've invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme if they'd had
a laptop and a bank account.
cüdn*nəvin venəd suchə
19. Even those wily old lighthouse keepers couldn't've invented such a highly lucrative money-laundering
scheme without outside help.
mydin vendə
20. The wily old lighthouse keepers might invent a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme unless they're
kept under house arrest.
mydəvin vendədə
21. The wily old lighthouse keepers might've invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme while they
were waiting for trial.
məssdin vendə
22. The wily old lighthouse keepers must invent a lot of highly lucrative money-laundering schemes.
məssdəvin vendədə
23. The wily old lighthouse keepers must've invented a highly lucrative money-laundering scheme while they
were out on parole.
cənin vent
24. The wily old lighthouse keepers can invent hundreds of highly lucrative money-laundering schemes.
170
kændin vendεnee
25. The wily old lighthouse keepers can't invent any more highly lucrative money-laundering schemes.
Review Exercise 11-8: Your Own Compound Nouns
On a separate piece of paper, build up your own compound nouns, both subject and object, as on page 140.
Review Exercise 11-9: Your Own Compound Nouns and Complex Verbs
On a separate piece of paper, write out your own sentences as on page 141.

Review Exercise 12-1: Nasal Consonants
Initial

Middle

Final

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m/b
n/d
ng/g

more
nine
bring each

bore
dine
geese

summing
Anna
singer

subbing
adder
cigar

jam
pawn
ring

jab
pod
rig

Review Exercise 12-2: Ending Nasal Consonants
M
rumə
some
hum

N
runə
son
hun

NG
rungə
sung
hung

Review Exercise 12-3: Reading Nasal Consonant Sounds
Some young men wanted to fling a ring along the rim of the fountain, but we told them to clam up and clear. up their
game. One was a well-mannered young man with the name Dan Wang. He said, "Yes, ma'am."

Review Exercise 13-1: Throaty Consonants
Initial

Middle

Final

h
k

how
cow
go

rehire
accent
regard

sink
drag

ng
r

bring in
row

thanks
mirror

sing
car

g

Review Exercise 13-2: The Letter X

[gz]

[ks]
excite
extra
except
excellent

[εksäit]
[εkstrə]
[əksεpt]
[εksələnt]

example
exactly
examine
exit

[əgzæmpəl]
[əgzæklee]
[əgzæmən]
[εgzit]

Review Exercise 13-3: Reading the H, K, G, NG, and R sounds
Dr. Baxter's exact experience was such that when the good doctor traveled to the Sahara, he inhaled the arid air, picked
up his still packed bags, and headed for the bar. It was time to examine the sorry situation, which was exactly the case
with Dr. Igor Baxter, an English historian with a peg leg and a unquenchable thirst for Mexican rum. Baxter had had a
pair of strange experiences in the area, but he was still game to accomplish his goal in the exiled purgatory of the great,
dry Sahara. When he saw that his patients were to be camels, however, he packed up and took off for green England,
without a single pang of regret.
171

Nationality Guides
No matter what language you speak, you will have different sounds and rhythms from a native speaker of American
English. These Nationality Guides will give you a head start on what to listen for in American English from the
perspective of your own native language. In order to specifically identify what you need to work on, this section can be
used in conjunction with the diagnostic analysis. The analysis provides an objective rendering of the sounds and rhythms
based on how you currently speak, as well as specific guidelines for how to standardize your English; call (800) 4574255 for a private consultation.
Each section will cover intonation, word connections, word endings, pronunciation, location of the language in the
mouth, as well as particular difficulties to work through, and solutions to common misperceptions.
Most adult students rely too heavily on spelling. It's now your job to listen for pure sound, and reconcile that to
spelling—not the other way around. This is the same path that a native speaker follows.
As you become familiar with the major characteristics and tendencies in American English, you will start using that
information in your everyday speech. One of the goals of the diagnostic analysis is to show you what you already know,
so you can use the information and skills in English as transfer skills, rather than newly learned skills. You will learn
more readily, more quickly, and more pleasantly—and you will retain the information and use the accent with less
resistance.
Read all the nationality guides—you never know when you'll pick up something useful for yourself. Although each
nationality is addressed individually, there are certain aspects of American English thaťre difficult for everyone, in this
order:

Стр. 154 из 185

1. Pitch changes and meaning shifts of intonation
2. Regressive vocalization with a final voiced consonant (bit/bid)
3. Liaisons
4. R&L
5. æ ä ə (including the æo in ow)
6. Tense & lax vowels (i/ē and ü/ū)
7. Th
8. B&V&W
Ideally, you would have learned intonation before you learned grammar, but since that didn't happen, you can now
incorporate the intonation into the grammar that you already know. When you first start listening for intonation, it sounds
completely random. It shifts all around even when you use the same words. So, where should you start? In basic
sentences with a noun-verb-noun pattern, the nouns are usually stressed. Why? Because nouns carry the new
information. Naturally, contrast can alter this, but noun stress is the default. Listen to native speakers and you will hear
that their pitch goes up on the noun most of the time.
You will, however, also hear verbs stressed. When? The verb is stressed when you replace a noun with a pronoun.
Because nouns are new information and pronouns are old information—and we don't stress old information—the intonation shifts over to the verb. Intonation is the most important part of your accent. Focus on this, and everything else will
fall into place with it.
• Intonation
• Liaisons
• Word endings
• Pronunciation
• Location in the mouth
• Particular difficulties

Nouns generally indicate new information and are stressed.

Pronouns
indicate old information and are unstressed.

172

Important Point
In English, a pitch change indicates the speaker's intention. In Chinese, a pitch change indicates a different word.
The four "ma" tones of Mandarin Chinese

Chinese Intonation Summary
1. Say the four ma's.
2. Write them out with the appropriate arrows.
3. Replace the stressed word in a sentence with each of the four ma's.
4. Decide which one sounds best.

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5. Put the stressed word back in the sentence, keeping the tone.

Chinese
Intonation
There are several immediately evident characteristics of a Chinese accent. The most notable is the lack of speech music,
or the musical intonation of English. This is a problem because, in the English language, intonation indicates meaning,
new information, contrast, or emotion. Another aspect of speech music is phrasing, which tells if it is a statement, a
question, a yes/no option, a list of items, or where the speaker is in the sentence (introductory phrase, end of the sentence,
etc.). In Chinese, however, a change in tone indicates a different vocabulary word.
In English, Chinese speakers have a tendency to increase the volume on stressed words, but otherwise give equal value to
each word. This atonal volume-increase will sound aggressive, angry, or abrupt to a native speaker. When this is added
to the tendency to lop off the end of each word, and almost no word connections at all, the result ranges from choppy to
unintelligible.
In spite of this unpromising beginning, Chinese students have a tremendous advantage. Here is an amazingly effective
technique that radically changes how you sound. Given the highly developed tonal qualities of the Chinese language, you
are truly a "pitch master." In order for you to appreciate your strength in this area, try the four ma tones of Mandarin
Chinese. (Cantonese is a little more difficult since it has eight to twelve tones and people aren't as familiar with the
differentiation.) These four tones sound identical to Americans — ma, ma, ma, ma.
Take the first sentence in Exercise 1 -5 It sounds like rain and replace rain with ma1. Say It sounds like ma 1. This will
sound strangely flat, so then try It sounds like ma2. This isn't it either, so go on to It sounds like ma3 and It sounds like
ma4. One of the last two will sound pretty good, usually ma3. You may need to come up with a combination of ma3 and
ma4, but once you have the idea of what to listen for, it's really easy. When you have that part clear, put rain back in the
sentence, keeping the tone:
It sounds like ma3. It sounds like rain3.
If it sounds a little short (It sounds like ren), double the sound:

When this exercise is successful, go to the second sentence, It sounds like rain and do the same thing:
It ma3 like rain. It sounds3 like rain. Then, contrast the two:
It sounds like rain3. It sounds3 like rain.
From this point on, you only need to periodically listen for the appropriate ma, substituting it in for words or syllables.
You don't even need to use the rubber band since your tonal sophistication is so high.
173
The main point of this exercise is to get you listening for the tone shifts in English, which are very similar to the tone
shifts in Chinese. The main difference is that Americans use them to indicate stress, whereas in Chinese, they are fully
different words when the tone changes.
A simple way to practice intonation is with the sound that American children use when they make a mistake—uh-oh.
This quick note shift is completely typical of the pattern, and once you have mastered this double note, you can go on to
more complex patterns. Because Chinese grammar is fairly similar to English grammar, you don't have to worry too
much about word order.

Liaisons
All of the advantages that you have from intonation are more than counterbalanced by your lack of word connections.
The reason for this is that Chinese characters (words or parts of words) start with consonants and end with either a vowel
or a nasalized consonant, n or ng. There is no such thing as a final t, l, or b in Chinese. To use an example we've all heard
of, Mao Tse Tung. This leads to several difficulties:
●
No word endings
●

No word connections

●
No distinction between final voiced or unvoiced consonants.
It takes time and a great deal of concentration, but the lack of word endings and word connections can be remedied.
Rather than force the issue of adding on sounds that will be uncomfortable for you, which will result in
overpronunciation, go with your strengths — notice how in speech, but not spelling, Americans end their words with
vowel sounds and start them with consonants, just as in Chinese! It's really a question of rewriting the English script in

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your head that you read from when you speak.
Liaisons or word connections will force the final syllable to be pronounced by pushing it over to the beginning of the
next word, where Chinese speakers have no trouble — not even with l.
Written
American (with
Chinese
English
Liaisons)
Accent
Tell him
teo him
tellim
Pull it out
puw ih aw
pü li dout
Because you are now using a natural and comfortable technique, you will sound smooth and fluid when you speak,
instead of that forced, exaggerated speech of people who are doing what they consider unnatural. It takes a lot of
correction to get this process to sink in, but it's well worth the effort. Periodically, when you speak, write down the exact
sounds that you made, then write it in regular spelling, so you can see the Chinese accent and the effect it has on meaning
(puw ih aw has no meaning in English). Then convert the written English to spoken American (pull it out changes to pü li
dout) to help yourself rewrite your English script.
When you don't use liaisons, you also lose the underlying hum that connects sentences together. This coassonance is like
the highway and the words are the cars that carry the listener along.
The last point of intonation is that Chinese speakers don't differentiate between voiced and unvoiced final consonants —
cap and cab sound exactly the

Goal

To get you to use your excellent tone control in English.
Chinese characters start with consonants and end with either a vowel or a nasalized consonant (n or ng).

Goal

To get you to rewrite your English script and to speak with sound units rather than word units.

174

same. For this, you will need to go back to the staircase. When a final consonant is voiced, the vowel is lengthened or
doubled. When a final consonant is unvoiced, the vowel is short or single.
Additionally, the long a before an m is generally shortened to a short ε. This is why the words same and name are
particularly difficult, usually being pronounced sem and nem. You have to add in the second half of the sound. You need
nay + eem to get name. Doubled vowels are explained on page 3.

Pronunciation

Goal
For you to hear the
actual
vowel
and
consonant sounds of
English, rather than a
Chinese perception of
them.

The most noticeable nonstandard pronunciation is the lack of final /. This can be
corrected by either liaisons, or by adding a tiny schwa after it (luh or lə) in order to
position your tongue correctly. This is the same solution for n and ng. Like most other
nationalities, Chinese students need to work on th and r, but fortunately, there are no
special problems here. The remaining major area is [ā], [ε], and [æ], which sound the
same. Mate, met, mat sound like met, met, met. The [ε] is the natural sound for the
Chinese, so working from there, you need to concentrate on Chapters 3 and 11. In the
word mate, you are hearing only the first half of the [εi] combination, so double the
vowel with a clear eet sound at the end (even before an unvoiced final consonant).
Otherwise, you will keep saying meh-eht or may-eht.
It frequently helps to know exactly how something would look in your own
a
language — and in Chinese, this entails characters. The characters on the left
are the sounds needed for a Chinese person to say both the long i as in China
and the long a as in made or same. Read the character, and then put letters in
front and in back of it so you are reading half alphabet, half character. An m in
front and a d in back of the first character will let you read made. A ch in front
and na in back of the second character will produce China. It's odd, but it
works.

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L

A word that ends in ~ail is particularly difficult for Chinese speakers since it
contains both the hard [εi] combination and a final / (Chapter 5). It usually
sounds something like feh-o. You need to say fail as if it had three full syllables
— fay-yə-lə.

u, v, Another difficulty may be u, v, f, and w. The point to remember here is

fay

175

f, w

that u and w can both be considered vowels (i.e., they don't touch anywhere in
the mouth), whereas v and/are consonants (your upper teeth touch your lower
lip). M, as in too or use should be no problem. Similar to M, but with a little
push of slightly rounded lips is w, as in what or white. The letters / and v have
basically the same sound, but / is unvoiced and v is voiced. Your lower lip
should come up a little to meet your top teeth. You are not biting down on the
outside of your lip here; the sound is created using the inside of your lower lip.
Leave your mouth in the same position and make the two sounds, both voiced
and unvoiced. Practice words such as fairy, very, and wary.

There is another small point that may affect people from southern mainland China who use / and n
interchangeably. This can be corrected by working with l words and pinching the nose shut. If you
are trying to say late and it comes out Nate, hold your nose closed and the air will be forced out
through your mouth.

ä

The æ sound doesn't exist in Chinese, so it usually comes out as ä or ε, so last sounds like lost or
name sounds like nem. You need to work on Chapter 3, which drills this distinctively American
vowel.
Because of spelling, the ä sound can easily be misplaced. The ä sound exists in Chinese, but when
you see an o, you might want to say [o], so hot sounds like hoht instead of haht. Remember, most
of the time, the letter o is pronounced ah. This will give you a good reference point for whenever
you want to say ä instead of [o]; astronomy, cäll, läng, prägress, etc.

o

Conversely, you may pronounce the letter o as ä or ə when it should be an o, as in only, most, both.
Make sure that the American o sounds like ou: ounly, moust, bouth.

ə

The schwa is typically overpronounced based on spelling. Work on Chapter 1, Intonation, and
Chapter 3, Pronunciation. If your intonation peaks are strong and clear enough, then your valleys
will be sufficiently reduced as well. Concentrate on smoothing out and reducing the valleys and
ignore spelling!
The [ü] sound is generally overpronounced to ooh. Again, spelling is the culprit. Words such as
smooth, choose, and too are spelled with 2 o's and are pronounced with a long u sound, but other
words such as took and good are spelled with 2 o's but are pronounced halfway between ih and uh;
[tük] and [güd].
In most Chinese dictionaries, the distinction between i and ē is not made. The ē is generally
indicated by [i:], which causes problems with final consonants, and the i sound is overpronounced
to eee. Practice these four sounds, remembering that tense vowels indicate that you tense your lips
or tongue, while lax vowels mean that your lips and tongue are relaxed and the sound is produced in
your throat. Unvoiced final consonants (t, s, k, p, ch, f) mean that the vowel is short and sharp;
voiced final consonants (d, z, g, b, j, v) mean that the vowel is doubled. Work on Bit or Beat? Bid or
Bead? in Chapter 8.
Chinese speakers usually pronounce American r as ä at the end of a word (car sounds like kaaah)
or almost a w in the beginning or middle (grow sounds like gwow). The tongue should be curled
back more, and the r produced deep in the throat.

æ

ü

i

r

th

If you pronounce th as t or d (depending if it's voiced or unvoiced), then you should allow your
tongue tip to move about a quarter of an inch forward, so the very tip is just barely between your
teeth. Then, from this position you make a sound similar to t or d.

n

Chinese will frequently interchange final n and ng. The solution is to add a little schwa at the end,
just like you do with the el. This will make the tongue position more apparent, as you can see on
page 89.
Some people pronounce the sh in a particularly Chinese-sounding way. It seems that the tongue is

sh

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too curled back, which changes the sound. Make sure that the tongue is flat, the tongue tip is just at
the ridge behind the top teeth, and that only a thin stream of air is allowed to escape.
Final Consonants One of the defining characteristics of Chinese speech is that the final consonants are left off
(hold sounds like ho). Whenever possible, make a liaison with the following word. For example, hold is difficult to
say, so try hold on = hol dän. Pay particular attention to Chapter 2.
American English has a peculiar characteristic in that the t sound is, in many cases, pronounced as a
t d.
Work on Chapter 4.
176

Location of the Language
Chinese, like American English, is located in the back of the throat. The major difference between the two
languages is that English requires that the speaker use the tongue tip a great deal: l, th; and final t, d, n, l.

Japanese
Intonation
Although Chinese and Japanese are both Asian languages and share enormously in their written characters, they are
opposites in terms of intonation, word-endings, pronunciation, and liaisons. Whereas the Chinese stress every word
and can sound aggressive, Japanese speakers give the impression of stressing no words and sounding timid. Both
impressions are, of course, frequently entirely at odds with the actual meaning and intention of the words being
spoken. Chinese speakers have the advantage of knowing that they have a tonal language, so it is simply a question
of transferring this skill to English.
Japanese, on the other hand, almost always insist that the Japanese language "has no intonation". Thus, Japanese
speakers in English tend to have a picket fence intonation | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | . In reality, the Japanese language does
express all kinds of information and emotion through intonation, but this is such a prevalent myth that you may
need to examine your own beliefs on the matter. Most likely, you need to use the rubber band extensively in order
to avoid volume increases rather than on changing the pitch.
One of the major differences between English and Japanese is that there is a fixed word order in English—a verb
grid—whereas in Japanese, you can move any word to the head of a sentence and add a topic particle (wa or ga).
Following are increasingly complex verbs with adverbs and helping verbs. Notice that the positions are fixed and
do not change with the additional words.

auxiliary negative

perfect
auxiliary

adverb

passive

continuous

main
verb

Draw!
Draw!
He draws.
He
He does draw.
He does
He is drawing.
He is
He is not drawing.
He is
not
He is not always drawing.
He is
not
He is not always being drawn.
He is
not
He has not always been drawn.
He has
not
He has not always been being drawn.
He has
not
He will not have always been being drawn.
He will
not
have

draws.
draw.
drawing.
drawing.
always

drawing.

always

being

drawn.

always

been

drawn.

always

been

being

drawn.

always

been

being

drawn.

177

Liaisons
Whereas the Chinese drop word endings, Japanese totally overpronounce them. This is because in the katakana
syllabary, there are the five vowels sounds, and then consonant-vowel combination. In order to be successful with

Стр. 159 из 185

word connections, you need to think only of the final consonant in a word, and connect that to the next word in the
sentence. For example, for What time is it? instead of Whato täimu izu ito? connect the two í's, and let the other
consonants move over to connect with the vowels, w'täi mi zit? Start with the held t in Chapter 4 and use that
concept for the rest of the final consonants.
The only way to get it is to practice all of the time.
Written English
Thee(y)only way də geddidiz də præctisälləv th' time.
American accent
Zä ondee weh tsu getto itto izu tsu pudäctees odu obu zä taimu.
Japanese accent

Pronunciation
æ The æ doesn't exist in Japanese; it usually comes out as ä, so last sounds like lost. You need to raise the

back of your tongue and drop your jaw to produce this sound. Work on Chapter 3, which drills this
distinctively American vowel.

ä

The ä sound is misplaced. You have the ä sound, but when you see an o, you want to say o, so hot
sounds like hohto instead of haht. Here's one way to deal with it. Write the word stop in katakana —
the four characters for su + to + hold + pu, so when you read it, it sounds like stohppu. Change the
second character from to to to: su + ta + hold + pu, it will sound like stop. This will give you a good
reference point for whenever you want to say ä instead of o; impossible, call, long, problem, etc.

o

You may pronounce the letter o as ä or ə when it should be an o, as in only, most, both. Make sure that
the American o sounds like ou: ounly, moust, bouth. This holds true for the diphthongs as well — oi
sounds like ou-ee.
toun
coul

tone
coal

nout
note
jouk
joke

houm

home ounli

only

Another way to develop clear strong vowels instead of nonstandard hybrids is to understand the
relation between the American English spelling system and the Japanese katakana sounds. For
instance, if you're having trouble with the word hot, say ha, hee, hoo, heh, hoh in Japanese, and then go
back to the first one and convert it from ha to hot by adding the held t (Chapter 4). Say hot in Japanese,
atsui, then add an h for hatsui and then drop the -sui part, which will leave hot.
ə

The schwa is typically overpronounced, based on spelling. Concentrate on smoothing out and reducing
the valleys and ignore spelling!

ü

Distinguishing tense and lax vowels is difficult, and you'll have to forget spelling for ū and ü. They
both can be spelled with oo or ou, but the lax vowel ü should sound much closer to i or uh. If you say
book with a tense vowel, it'll sound like booque. It should be much closer to bick or buck.

i

Similarly, you need to distinguish between e and i, as in beat and bit, on page 123. Also, tone down the
middle i in the multisyllabic words on page 125; otherwise, similar [sim'lr] will sound like [see-meelär]. Most likely, you overpronounce the lax vowel i to eee, so that sit is mispronounced as seat.
Reduce the lax i almost to a schwa; sit should sound like s't. In most Japanese dictionaries, the
distinction between i and ē is not made. Practice the four sounds — bit, beat, bid, bead —
remembering that tense vowels indicate that you tense your lips or tongue, while lax vowels mean that
your lips and tongue are relaxed and the sound is produced in your throat. Unvoiced final consonants (t,
s, k, p, ch, f) mean that the vowel is short and sharp; voiced final consonants (d, z, g, b, j, v) mean that
the vowel is doubled. Work on Bit or Beat? Bid or Bead? in Chapter 8.

toun
ounli
178

tone
only

nout
coul

single

double

tense

beat

bead

lax

bit

bid

note
coal

The Japanese R = The American T

houm
jouk

home
joke

Стр. 160 из 185

Betty bought a bit of
I bought a bike.

I need a lot of
time.
my motto

Could he show him?

meeting

We ought to go.
I'm not on time.
The Japanese r is a consonant. This means that it touches at some point in the mouth. Japanese
speakers usually trill their rs (tapping the ridge behind the top teeth), which makes it sound like a d
to the American ear. The tongue should be curled back, and the r produced deep in the throat — not
touching the top of the mouth. The Japanese pronunciation of r is usually just an ä at the end of a
word (car sounds like caaah) or a flap in the beginning or middle (area sounds like eddy-ah)

L

Japanese speakers often confuse the el with r or d, or drop the schwa, leaving the sound incomplete.

th The th sound is mispronounced s or z, depending if it is voiced or unvoiced.
v

v is mispronounced either as a simple bee, or if you have been working on it, it may be a
combination such as buwee). You need to differentiate between the four sounds of p/b/f/v. The
plosives b/p pop out; the sibilants f/v slide out. b/v are voiced; f/p are unvoiced. b/v are the least
related pair. The root of the problem is that you need a good, strong/first. To the American ear, the
way the Japanese say Mount Fuji sounds like Mount Hooji. Push your bottom lip up with your finger
so that it is outside your top teeth and make a sharp popping sound. Practice these sounds:

The w is erroneously dropped before ü, so would is shortened to ood. Since you can say wa, wi, wo
with no problem, use that as a starting point; go from waaaaa, weeeeeeee, woooooo to wüüüüü. It's
more a concept problem than a physical one.

n

Japanese will frequently interchange final n and ng. Adding the little schwa at the end will clear this
up by making the tongue position obvious, as on page 89.

z

z at the beginning of a word sounds like dz. (zoo sounds like dzoo). For some reason, this is a tough
one. In the syllabary, you read ta, chi, tsu, teh, toh for unvoiced and da, ji, dzu, de, do for voiced.
Try going from unvoiced sssssue to zzzzzzzoo, and don't pop that d in at the last second.

179

si The si combination is mispronounced as shi, so six comes out as shicks. Again, this is a syllabary problem. You
read the s row as sa, shi, su, seh, soh. You just need to realize that since you already know how to make a hissing s
sound, you are capable of making it before the i sound.

Location of the Language
Japanese is more forward in the mouth than American English, and more like Spanish except there is much less lip
movement.

Spanish

Стр. 161 из 185

Intonation
Spanish-speaking people (bearing in mind that there are 22 Spanish-speaking countries) tend to have strong
intonation, but it's usually toward the end of a phrase or sentence. It is very clear sometimes in Spanish that a
person is taking an entire phrase pattern and imposing it on the English words. This can create a subtle shift in
meaning, one that the speaker is completely unaware of. For example,
English with a Spanish Pattern
Spanish
Standard English Pattern
Quiero comer álgo. I want to eat sόmething.
I want to éat something.
This is a normal stress pattern in Spanish, but it indicates in English that either you are willing to settle for less than
usual or you are contrasting it with the possibility of nothing.
Spanish has five pure vowels sounds—ah, ee, ooh, eh, oh—and Spanish speakers consider it a point of pride that
words are clearly pronounced the way they are written. The lack of the concept of schwa or other reduced vowels
may make you overpronounce heavily in English. You'll notice that I said the concept of schwa—I think that every
language has a schwa, whether it officially recognizes it or not. The schwa is just a neutral vowel sound in an
unstressed word and at some point in quick speech in any language, vowels are going to be neutralized.

Liaisons
In Spanish, there are strong liaisons — el hombre sounds like eh lombre, but you'll probably need to rewrite a
couple of sentences in order to get away from word-by-word pronunciation. Because consonant clusters in Spanish
start with an epsilon sound (español for Spanish, especial for special), this habit carries over into English.
Rewriting expressions to accommodate the difference will help enormously.
With Epsilon
Rewritten
With Epsilon
Rewritten
I estudy
ice tudy
excellent espeech
excellence peech
in espanish
ince panish
my especialty
mice pecialty
their eschool
theirss cool
her espelling
herss pelling

Word Endings
In Spanish, words end in a vowel (o or a), or the consonants n, s, r, l, d. Some people switch n and ng (I käng hear
you) for either I can hear you or / can't hear you. Another consequence is that final consonants can get dropped in
English, as in short (shor) or friend (fren).

Pronunciation
With most Spanish speakers, the s is almost always unvoiced, r is trilled, l is too short and lacks a schwa, d sounds
like a voiced th, and b and v are interchangeable. Spanish speakers also substitute the ä sound whenever the letter a
appears, most often for œ, ä and ə. Bear in mind that there are six different pronunciations for the letter a as on
page 142. Knowing these simple facts will help you isolate and work through your difficulties.
180

The Spanish S = The American S, But...
In Spanish, an s always sounds like an s. (In some countries, it may be slightly voiced before a voiced consonant
such as in mismo.) In English, a final ~s sounds like z when it follows a voiced consonant or a vowel (raise [raz],
runs [rənz]). The most common verbs in English end in the z sound—is, was, does, has, etc. Double the preceding
vowel and allow your vocal cords to vibrate.

The Spanish R = The American T
Beri bara bira
Betty bought a bit of
ai nira lara taim
I need a lot of time.
Ai! Caracol!
I caught a cold.
mai marou
my motto
Curi du it?
Could he do it?
mirin
meeting
ui ara gou
We ought to go.
aim naran taim
I'm not on time.
In Spanish, r is a consonant. This means that it touches at some point in the mouth. Spanish speakers usually roll
their rs (touching the ridge behind the top teeth), which makes it sound like a d to the American ear. The tongue
should be curled back, and the r produced deep in the throat—not touching the top of the mouth. The Spanish
pronunciation of r is usually the written vowel and a flap r at the end of a word (feeler is pronounced like feelehd)
or a flap in the beginning or middle (throw sounds like tdoh). In English, the pronunciation of r doesn't change if
it's spelled r or rr.

The -ed Ending

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You may have found yourself wondering how to pronounce asked or hoped; if you came up with as-ked or ho-ped,
you made a logical and common mistake. There are three ways to pronounce the -ed ending in English, depending
what the previous letter is. If it's voiced, -ed sounds like d: played [pleid]. If it's unvoiced, -ed sounds like t:
laughed [læft]. If the word ends in t or d, -ed sounds like əd: patted [pædəd].

The Final T
The t at the end of a word should not be heavily aspirated. Let your tongue go to the t position, and then just stop. It
should sound like [hät], not [hä], or [häch], or [häts].

The Spanish D = The American Th (voiced)
The Spanish d in the middle and final positions is a fricative d (coda and sed). If you are having trouble with the
English th, substitute in a Spanish d. First, contrast cara and cada in Spanish, and then note the similarities between
cam and caught a, and cada and father, cada
father
beid
bathe

The Spanish of Spain Z or C = The American Th (unvoiced)
The letters z and c in most Spanish-speaking countries sound like s in English (not in Andalusia, however). The z
and c from Spain, on the other hand, is equivalent to the American unvoiced th. When you want to say both in
English, say bouz with an accent from Spain.

bouz

both

gracias grathias

uiz

with

The Spanish I = The American Y (not j)
In most Spanish-speaking countries, the y and ll sounds are equivalent to the American y, as in yes or in liaisons
such as the(y)other one.

Jes, I jelled at jou jesterday can be heard in some countries such as Argentina.
hielo yellow (not jello) ies yes iu you

The Doubled Spanish A Sound = The American O, All or AW Spelling
Because of spelling, the ä sound can easily be misplaced. The ä sound exists in Spanish, but it is represented with
the letter a. When you see the letter o, you pronounce it [o], so hot sounds like hoht instead of haht. Remember,
most of the time, the letter o is pronounced ah. You can take a sound that already exists
181

in Spanish, such as jaat (whether it means anything or not) and say it with your native accent — jaat
with a Spanish accent more or less equals hot in English.This will give you a good reference point for
whenever you want to say ä instead of o; astronomy, call, long, progress, etc. Focus on Chapter 3,
differentiating æ, ä, ə.
caal
jaat
call
hot
saa
saw

The Spanish O = The American OU
You may pronounce the letter o as ä or ə when it really should be an o, as in only, most, both. Make sure that the
American o sounds like [ou], ounly, moust, bouth. This holds true for the diphthongs as well — oi sounds like ou-ee.

Ounli only joup hope nout note

æ

The æ sound doesn't exist in Spanish, so it usually comes out as ä, so last sounds like lost. You need to
work on Chapter 3, which drills this distinctively American vowel.

ə

The schwa is typically overpronounced, based on spelling. Work on Chapter 1 Intonation and Chapter 3
Pronunciation. If your intonation peaks are strong and clear enough, then your valleys will be sufficiently
reduced as well. Concentrate on smoothing out and reducing the valleys and ignore spelling!

ü

The [ü] sound is generally overpronounced to ooh. Again, spelling is the culprit. Words such as smooth,
choose and too are spelled with two o's and are pronounced with a long u sound, but other words such as
took and good are spelled with two o's but are pronounced halfway between ih and uh; [tük] and [güd].

i

Spanish speakers overpronounce the lax vowel i to eee, so sit comes out as seat. In most Spanish dictionaries, the distinction between i and ē is not made. Practice the four sounds — bit, beat, bid, bead —
remembering that tense vowels indicate that you tense your lips or tongue, while lax vowels mean that

Стр. 163 из 185

your lips and tongue are relaxed and the sound is produced in your throat. Unvoiced final consonants (t,
s, k, p, ch, f) mean that the vowel is short and sharp; voiced final consonants (d, z, g, b, j, v) mean that the
vowel is doubled. Work on Bit or Beat? Bid or Bead? in Chapter 8. Reduce the soft [i] to a schwa; sit
should sound like s't.
single

double

tense

beat

bead

lax

bit

bid

Also, watch out for cognates such as similar, pronounced [see-mee-lär] in Spanish, and [si•m'•lr] in
American English. Many of them appear in the Middle "I" List on page 125.

l

The Spanish l lacks a schwa, leaving the sound short and incomplete to the American ear. Contrast
similar words in the two languages and notice the differences.
Written
ball

v

Pronounced
bä-uhl

Spanish
bal

A Spanish speaker usually pronounces v and b the same (I have trouble with my bowels instead of I have
trouble with my vowels). You need to differentiate between the four sounds of p/b/f/v. The plosives b/p pop
out; the sibilants f/v slide out. b/v are voiced; f/p are unvoiced, b/v are the least related pair. Push your
bottom lip up with your finger so that it is outside your top teeth and make a sharp popping sound. Practice
these sounds:

The final n is often mispronounced ng — meng rather than men. Put a tiny schwa at the end to finish off
the n, menə, as explained on page 89.

w The w sound in Spanish can sound like a gw (I gwould do it). You need to practice g in the throat and
rounding your lips for w. You can also substitute in a Spanish u, as in will [uil].

h

The Spanish h is silent, as in hombre, but Spanish speakers often use a stronger fricative than Americans
would. The American h is equivalent to the Spanish j, but the air coming out shouldn't pass through a
constricted throat — it's like you're steaming a mirror — hat, he, his, her, whole, hen, etc. In some
Spanish-speaking countries, they is fricative and in others it is not. Also, there are many words in which
the h is completely silent, as in hour, honest, herb, as well as in liaisons with object pronouns such as
her and him (tell her sounds like teller).

ch In order to make the ch sound different from the sh, put a t in front of the ch. Practice the difference
between wash [wäsh] and watch [watch], or sharp [sharp] and charm [chärm].

p

The American p is more strongly plosive than its Spanish counterpart. Put your hand in front of your
mouth — you should feel a strong burst of air. Practice with Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers.

j

In order to make a clear j sound, put a d in front of the j. Practice George [djordj].

There was a woman from Spain who used to say, "Es imposible que se le quite el acento a uno," pronouncing it, "Esh
imposhible que se le quite el athento a uno." In her particular accent, s sounded like s, which would transfer quite well to
standard American English. What it also means is that many people claim it is impossible to change the accent. For
clarification, see page v.

Location of the Language

Стр. 164 из 185

Spanish is very far forward with much stronger use of the lips.

Indian
Intonation
Of the many and varied Indian dialects (Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi, etc.), there is a common intonation transfer to English—
sort of a curly, rolling cadence that flows along with little relation to meaning. It is difficult to get the average Indian
student to change pitch. Not that people are unwilling to try or difficult to deal with; on the contrary, in my experience of
working with people from India, I find them incredibly pleasant and agreeable. This is part of the problem, however.
People agree in concept, in principle, in theory, in every aspect of the
183
matter, yet when they say the sentence, the pitch remains unchanged.
I think that what happens is that, in standard American English, we raise the pitch on the beat, Indians drop their
pitch on the beat. Also, the typical Indian voice is much higher pitched than Americans are accustomed to hearing.
In particular, you should work on the voice quality exercise on page 94.
Of the three options (volume, length, pitch), you can raise the volume easily, but it doesn't sound very good. Since
volume is truly the least desirable and the most offensive to the listener, and since pitch has to be worked on over
time, lengthening the stressed word is a good stopgap measure. Repeating the letter of a stressed word will help a
lot toward changing a rolling odabah odabah odabah intonation to something resembling peaks and valleys.
The oooonly way to geeeeeeedidiz to prœœœœœœœœœktis all of the time.
One thing that works for pitch is to work on the little sound that children make when they make a mistake, "uh-oh!"
The first sound is on a distinctly higher level than the second one, and since it's a nonsense syllable, it's easier to
work with.
Since so much emotion is conveyed through intonation, it's vital to work with the various tone shifts, Intonation
and Attitude, as seen on page 128.
It's necessary to focus on placing the intonation on the correct words (nouns, compound nouns, descriptive phases,
etc.), as well as contrasting, negating, listing, questioning, and exclaiming.
Intonation is also important in numbers, which are typically difficult for Indian speakers. There are both intonation
and pronunciation between 13 and 30. The number 13 should sound like thr-teen, while 30 sounds like thr-dee; 14
is for-teen, and 40 is for-dee

Liaisons
Liaisons shouldn't be much of a problem for you once the pattern is pointed out and reinforced.

Pronunciation
One way to have an accent is to leave out sounds that should be there, but the other way is to put in sounds that
don't exist in that language. Indians bring a rich variety of voiced consonants to English that contribute to the
heavy, rolling effect.

t

For the initial t alone, there are eight varieties, ranging from plosive to almost swallowed. In
American English, t at the top of a staircase is a sharp t, and t in the middle is a soft d. Indians tend
to reverse this, using the plosive British t in the middle position (water) and a t-like sound in the
beginning. (I need two sounds like I need doo). The solution is to substitute your th — it will sound
almost perfect (7 need thoo sounds just like I need two). Another way is to separate the t from the
rest of the word and whisper it. T + aim = time. Bit by bit, you can bring the whispered, sharply
plosive t closer to the body of the word. A third way is to imagine that it is actual ts, so you are
saying tsäim, which will come out sounding like time.
D
D
T
T
tennis
Dennis
ten
den
time
dime
to
do
The final t is typically too plosive, and should be held just at the position before the air is expelled.

p

This is similar to the initial t, in that you probably voice the unvoiced p so it sounds like a b. Start
with the m, progress to the b, and finally whisper the p sound.

Стр. 165 из 185

M

men
mail
met

Ben
bail
bet

B

pen
pail
pet

P

mull
mossy
mile

M

bull
bossy
bile

B

P

pull
possible
pile

184

æ

The æ sound usually sounds like ä. You might refer to the last class, but it will sound like the lost doss. You
should raise the back of your tongue, and make a noise similar to that of a lamb.

ä

Because of spelling, the ä sound can easily be misplaced. The ä sound exists in the Indian languages, but is
represented with the letter a. When you see the letter o, you pronounce it o, so John sounds like Joan instead
of Jahn. Remember, most of the time, the letter o is pronounced ah. You can take a sound that already exists
in your language, such as tak (whether it means anything or not) and say it with your native accent — tak with
an Indian accent more or less equals talk in English.This will give you a good reference point for whenever
you want to say ä instead of o; astronomy, call, long, progress, etc. Focus on Chapter 3, differentiating œ, ä, ə.

Стр. 166 из 185

haat

o

caal

hot

call

saa

saw

You may pronounce the letter o as ä or əwhen it really should be an o, as in only, most, both. Make sure that
the American o sounds like ou, ounly, moust, bouth. This holds true for the diphthongs as well — [oi] sounds
like ou-ee.
ounli

only

houp

hope

nout

note

r

Indians tend to have a British r, which means that it is either a flap at the beginning or middle of a word or it is
reduced to ä at the end of a word. You need to understand that the American r is not a consonant (i.e., it
doesn't touch at any two points in the mouth) — it is much closer to a vowel in that the tongue curls back to
shape the air flow.

th

The American th, both voiced and unvoiced, usually sounds like a d when said by an Indian speaker, thank you
sounds like dank you. Also you must distinguish between a voiced and an unvoiced th. The voiced ones are the
extremely common, everyday sounds — the, this, that, these, those, them, they, there, then; unvoiced are less
common words — thing, third, Thursday, thank, thought.

v

Indians usually reverse v/w: These were reversed ==> Dese ver rewersed. It should be a simple thing to
simply reverse them back, but for some reason, it's more problematic than that. Try substituting in the other
word in actual sentences.
He vent to the store.
I'll be back in a vile.

He closed the went.
It was a while attack.

Think of the w, a "double u", as a "single u"; so in place of the w in want, you'd pronounce it oo-änt. There can
be NO contact between the teeth and the lips for w, as this will turn it into a consonant. Feel the f/v consonants,
and then put oo~ in place of the w (oo~ile for while). Conversely, you can substitute ferry for very so that it
won't come out as wary. Because of the proximity of the consonants, / and v are frequently interchanged in
English (belief/believe, wolf/wolves). Consequently, It was ferry difficult is easier to understand than It was
wary difficult. Practice Ex. 9-1 to distinguish among p/b,f/v and w.

l

F

V

W

F

V

W

fence
face

vent
vase

went (oo-ent)
waste (oo-aste)

first
file

verse
vile

worse (oo-rs)
while (oo-ile)

The l is too heavy, too drawn out, and is missing the schwa component.

Location of the Language
Far forward and uttered through rounded lips.
185

Russian
Intonation
Russian intonation seems to start at a midpoint, and then cascades down. The consequence is that it sounds very
downbeat. You definitely need to add a lilt to your speech—more peaks, as there're already plenty of valleys. To
the Russian ear, English can have a harsh, almost metallic sound due to the perception of nasal vibrations in some
vowels. This gives a clarity to American speech that allows it to be heard over a distance. When Russian speakers
try to imitate that "loudness" and clarity, without the American speech music, instead of the intended
pronunciation, it can sound aggressive. On the other hand, when Russians do not try to speak "loud and clear," it
can end up sounding vaguely depressed.

Liaisons
Word connections should be easy since you have the same fluid word/sound boundaries as in American English.
The phrase [dosvedänyə] sounds like dos vedanya, whereas you know it as do svedanya. It won't be difficult to run

Стр. 167 из 185

your words together once you realize it's the same process in English.

Pronunciation
Although you have ten vowels in Russian, there are quite a few other vowels out there waiting for you.
æ The [æ] sound doesn't exist in Russian, so last is demoted to the lax ε, lest. In the same way,
Russian speakers reduce actually to ekchually, or matter to metter. Drop your jaw and raise the back
of your tongue to make a noise like a goat: æ! Work on Chapter 3, which drills this distinctively
American vowel.
ä The [ä] sound exists in Russian, but is represented with the letter a. Bear in mind that there are six
different pronunciations of the letter a, as you can see on page 142. Because of spelling, the ä sound
can easily be misplaced. When you see the letter o, you pronounce it o, so job sounds like jobe
instead of jääb. Remember, most of the time, the letter o is pronounced ah. Take a sound that
already exists in Russian, such as baab (whether it means anything or not) and say it with your
native accent, baab with a Russian accent more or less equals Bob in English. This will give you a
good reference point for whenever you want to say ä instead of o; biology, call, long, problem, etc.
Focus on Chapter 3, differentiating œ, ä, ə.

o

Conversely, you may pronounce the letter o as ä or ə when it really should be an o, as in only, most,
both (which are exceptions to the spelling rules). Make sure that the American o sounds like [ou],
ounly, moust, bouth. This holds true for the diphthongs as well — oi should sound like ou-ee.
toun
ounli

ə

ü

i

186

-у

tone
only

nout
coul

note
coal

houm
OK

home
oukei

The schwa is often overpronounced to ä, which is why you might sound a little like Count Dracula
when he says, I vänt to säck your bläd instead of I wänt to sək your bləd. Don't drop your jaw for the
neutral schwa sound; it's like the final syllable of spasiba [sp'sibə], not [sp'sibä]. Similarly, in
English, the schwa in an unstressed syllable is completely neutral; famous is not [fay-moos], but
rather [fay-m's].
Distinguishing tense and lax vowels is difficult, and you'll have to forget spelling for u and ü. They
both can be spelled with oo or ou, but the lax vowel ü should sound much closer to i or uh. If you
say book and could with a tense vowel, it'll sound like booque and cooled. It should be much closer
to bick or buck.
Similarly, you need to distinguish between ee and í, as in beat and bit (page 123), as his big sister is
mispronounced as heez beeg seester or with the [y], hyiz byig systr. Frequently, Russian speakers
transpose these two sounds, so while the lax vowel in his big sister is overpronounced to heez beeg
seester, the tense vowel in She sees Lisa, is relaxed to shi siz lissa. Also, tone down the middle i in
the multisyllabic
words on page 125; otherwise, similar [sim'lr] will sound like [see-mee-lär].
Russian speakers often mispronounce the final -y as a short -i, so that very funny sounds like verə funnə.
Extend the final sound out with three e's: vereee funneee.

The Russian R = The American Т
The Cyrillic r is a consonant. This means that it touches at some point in the mouth. Russian speakers usually roll their rs
(touching the ridge behind the top teeth), which makes it sound like a d to the American ear. The American r is not really
a consonant anymore—the tongue should be curled back, and the r produced deep in the throat—not touching the top of
the mouth. The Russian pronunciation of r is usually the written vowel and a flap r at the end of a word (feeler sounds
like feelehd) or a flap in the beginning or middle (throw sounds like tdoh).
бэри бара бира
Betty bought a bit of
аин ира лара таим I need a lot of time.
маи мароу
my motto
аи бара баик
I bought a bike.
уэира сэкен
Wait a second.
мирин
meeting
уи ара гоу
We ought to go.
аин наран таим
I'm not on time.
юв гара пэира гэрит
You've got to pay to get it.
бюрафли
beautifully
Another major point with the American r is that sometimes the preceding vowel is pronounced, and
sometimes it isn't. When you say wire, there's a clear vowel plus the r — wy•r; however, with first,
there is simply no preceding vowel. Iťs frst, not feerst, (Ex. 6-2 and 6-3).

Стр. 168 из 185

t

At the beginning of a word, the American t needs to be more plosive — you should feel that you are
"spitting air." At the end of the word, it is held back and not aspirated.

eh

One of the most noticeable characteristics of a Russian accent is the little у that is slipped in with the
eh sound. This makes a sentence such as Kevin has held a cat sound like Kyevin hyes hyeld a kyet.
This is because you are using the back of the tongue to "push" the vowel sound out of the throat. In
English, you need to just allow the air to pop through directly after the consonant, between the back
of the tongue and the soft palate: k•æ, not k•yæ.

h

Another strong characteristic of Russian speech is a heavily fricative h. Rather than closing the back
of the throat, let the air flow unimpeded between the soft palate and the back of your tongue. Be sure
to keep your tongue flat so you don't push out the little у mentioned above. Often, you can simply
drop the h to avoid the whole problem. For I have to, instead of I hhyef to, change it to I y'v to.

V

The v is often left unvoiced, so the common word of sounds like oaf. Allow your vocal cords to
vibrate.
There are two sh sounds in Russian, ш and щ. The second one is closer to the American sh, as in
щиуз for shoes, not шуз.

sh
th

You may find yourself replacing the voiced and unvoiced th sounds with tld or s/z, saying dä ting or
zä sing instead of the thing. This means that your tongue tip is about a half inch too far back on the
alveolar ridge (the gum ridge behind the teeth). Press your tongue against the back of the teeth and try
to say dat. Because of the tongue position, it will sound like that.

-ing

Often the -ing ending is not pronounced as a single ng sound, but rather as n and g, or just n. There
are three nasals, т (lips), n (tongue tip and alveolar ridge), and ng (soft palate and the back of the
tongue). It is not a hard consonant like g, but rather a soft nasal.

187

French
Intonation
The French are, shall we say, a linguistically proud people. More than working on accent or pronunciation; you
need to "believe" first. There is an inordinate amount of psychological resistance here, but the good thing is that, in
my experience, you are very outspoken about it. Unlike the Japanese, who will just keep quiet, or Indians, who
agree with everything with sometimes no discernible change in their speech patterns, my French students have
quite clearly pointed out how difficult, ridiculous, and unnatural American English is. If the American pattern is a
stairstep, the Gallic pattern is a fillip at the end of each phrase.

Hello, my name is Pierre. I live in Paris.

Allo, my name is Pierre. I live in Paree. I ride the subway.

Liaisons
The French either invented liaisons or raised them to an art form. You may not realize, though, that the rules that
bind your phrases together, also do in English. Just remember, in French, it is spelled ce qu'ils disent, but you've
heard it pronounced colloquially a thousand times, skidiz!

Pronunciation
th

In French, the tee aitch is usually mispronounced s or f, as in sree or free for three.

r

The French r is in the same location as the American one, but it is more like a consonant. For the
French r, the back of the tongue rasps against the soft palate, but for the American r, the throat
balloons out , like a bullfrog.

æ

The æ sound doesn't exist in French, so it usually comes out as ä or ε; consequently, class sounds
like class, and cat sounds like ket. The in- prefix, however, sounds like a nasalized æ. Say in in
French, and then denasalize it to œd. Work on Chapter 3, which drills this distinctively American
vowel.

э

The schwa is typically overpronounced, based on spelling. Work on Chapter 1, for the rhythm

Стр. 169 из 185

patterns that form this sound, and Chapter 3, for its actual pronunciation. If your intonation peaks
are strong and clear enough, then your valleys will be sufficiently reduced as well. Concentrate on
smoothing out and reducing the valleys and ignore spelling!

ü

The ü sound is generally overpronounced to ooh, which leads to could being mispronounced as
cooled. Again, spelling is the culprit. Words such as smooth, choose, and too are spelled with two
o's and are pronounced with a long и sound, but other words such as look and took are spelled with
two o's but are pronounced halfway between ih and uh; lük and tük. Leuc and queue with a French
accent are very close.
French speakers overpronounce the lax vowel i to eee, so sit comes out like seat. Reduce the soft i
to a schwa; sit should sound like s't. In most French dictionaries, the distinction between i and ē is
not made. Practice the four sounds — bit, beat, bid, bead — remembering that tense vowels indicate
that you tense your lips or tongue, while lax vowels mean that your lips and tongue are relaxed, and
the sound is produced in your throat. Unvoiced final consonants (t, s, k, p, ch, f) mean that the vowel
is short and sharp; voiced final consonants (d, z, g, b, j, v) mean that the vowel is doubled. Work on
Bit or Beat? Bid or Bead? in Chapter 8.

double

tense

single
beat

lax

fait

bid

bead

188

Also, watch out for cognates such as typique/typical, pronounced [tee•peek] in French, and [ti•p'•kl] in
American English. Many of them appear in the Middle "I" List on page 125.

ä

Because of spelling, the ä sound can easily be misplaced. The ä sound exists in French, but is
represented with the letter a. When you see the letter o, you pronounce it o, so lot sounds like loht
instead of laht. Remember, most of the time, the letter o is pronounced ah. You can take a sound that
already exists in French, such as laat (whether it means anything or not) and say it with your native
accent — laat with a French accent more or less equals lot in English.This will give you a good
reference point for whenever you want to say ä instead of o; astronomy, call, long, progress, etc. Focus
on Chapter 3, differentiating æ, ä, ə.
haat

o

coal

call

saa

saw

On the other hand, you may pronounce the letter o as ä or ə when it really should be an o, as in only,
most, both. Make sure that the American o sounds like [ou], ounly, moust, bouth. This holds true for the
diphthongs as well — oi sounds like o-u-ee.
ounli

h

hot

only

loun

nout

loan

note

French people have the most fascinating floating h. Part of the confusion comes from the hache aspiré,
which is totally different from the American aitch. Allow a small breath of air to escape with each aitch.

in~ The nasal combination in~ and ~en are often pronounced like œñ and äñ, so interesting [intr' sting]
sounds like æñteresting, and enjoy [εnjoy] and attention [ətεnshən] sound like äñjoy and ätäñseeõn.

Location in the Mouth
Very far forward, with extensive use of the lips.

German

Стр. 170 из 185

Intonation
Germans have what Americans consider a stiff, rather choppy accent. The great similarity between the two languages lies
in the two-word phrases, where a hόt dog is food and a hot dόg is an overheated chihuahua. In German, a thimble is
called a fingerhut, literally a finger hat, and a red hat would be a rote hut, with the same intonation and meaning shift as
in English.

Liaisons
German word connections are also quite similar to American ones. Consider how In einem Augenblick actually is
pronounced ineine maugenblick. The same rules apply in both languages.

Pronunciation
j

A salient characteristic of German is the unvoicing of j, so you might say 7 am Cherman instead of 7 am
German. Work with the other voiced pairs (p/b, s/z, klg) and then go on to ch/j while working with J
words such as just, Jeff, German, enjoy, age, etc.

W Another difference is the transposing of v and w. When you say Volkswagen, it most likely comes out

Folksvagen. It works to rewrite the word as Wolksvagen, which then will come out as we say
Volkswagen. A Germany student was saying that she was a wisiting scholar, which didn't make much
sense — say wisiding with a German accent — it'll sound like visiting in American English.

th In German, the tee aitch is usually pronounced t or d.
r The German r is in the same location as the American one, but it is more like a consonant. For the

German r, the back of the tongue rasps against the soft palate, but for the American r, the throat
balloons out, like a bullfrog.

æ The æ sound doesn't exist in German, so it usually comes out as ä or ε, so class sounds like class,
You need to work on Chapter 3, which drills this distinctively American vowel.

ə

The schwa is typically overpronounced, based on spelling. Work on Chapter 1, for the rhythm
patterns that form this sound, and Chapter 3, for its actual pronunciation. If your intonation peaks
are strong and clear enough, then your valleys will be sufficiently reduced as well. Concentrate on
smoothing out and reducing the valleys and ignore spelling!

ü

The ü sound is generally overpronounced to ooh, which leads to could being mispronounced as
cooled. Again, spelling is the culprit. Words such as smooth, choose, and too are spelled with two
o's and are pronounced with a long u sound, but other words such as look and took are spelled with
two o's but are pronounced halfway between ih and uh; lük and tük.

i

German speakers overpronounce the lax vowel i to eee, so sit comes out like seat. Reduce the soft z
to a schwa; sit should sound like s 't. In most German dictionaries, the distinction between i and ē is
not made. Practice the four sounds — bit, beat, bid, bead — remembering that tense vowels
indicate that you tense your lips or tongue, while lax vowels mean that your lips and tongue are
relaxed, and the sound is produced in your throat. Unvoiced final consonants (t, s, k, p, ch, f) mean
that the vowel is short and sharp; voiced final consonants (d, z, g, b, j, v) mean that the vowel is
doubled. Work on Bit or Beat? Bid or Bead? in Chapter 8.
single

double

tense

beat

bead

lax

bit

bid

Also, watch out for words such as chemical/Chemikalie, pronounced [ke•mi•kä•lee•eh] in German,
and [kεməkəl] in American English. Many of them appear in the Middle "I" List on page 125.

ä

Because of spelling, the ä sound can easily be misplaced. The ä sound exists in German, but is represented with the letter a. When you see the letter o, you pronounce it [o], so lot sounds like loht
instead of laht. Remember, most of the time, the letter o is pronounced ah. You can take a sound that
already exists in German, such as laat (whether it means anything or not) and say it with your native

Стр. 171 из 185

accent — laat with a German accent more or less equals lot in American English. This will give you
a good reference point for whenever you want to say ä instead of o; astronomy, call, long, progress,
etc. Focus on Chapter 3, differentiating œ, ä, ə.
haat

o

hot

caal

call

saa

saw

German speakers tend to use the British o, which sounds like εo rather than the American ou. Make
sure that the American o, in only, most, both, sounds like ou, ounly, moust, bouth. This holds true for
the diphthongs as well — oi sounds like o-u-ee.
ounli

only

houp

hope

nout

note

190

Korean
Intonation
While English is a stress-timed language, Korean is a syllable-timed language. Korean is more similar to Japanese
than Chinese in that the pitch range of Korean is also narrow, almost flat, and not rhythmical. Many Korean
speakers tend to stress the wrong word or syllable, which changes the meaning in English (They'll sell fish and
They're selfish.) Korean speakers tend to add a vowel to the final consonant after a long vowel: b/v (babe/beibu and
wave/weibu), k/g (make/meiku and pig/pigu), and d (made/meidu.) Koreans also insert a vowel after sh/ch/j
(wash/washy, church/churchy, bridge/brijy), and into consonant clusters (bread/bureau). It is also common
problem to devoice final voiced consonants, so that dog can be mispronounced as either dogu or dock. All this
adversely influences the rhythm patterns of spoken English. The different regional intonation patterns for Korean
interrogatives also affect how questions come across in English. In standard Korean, the intonation goes up for both
yes/no questions and wh questions (who?, what?, where?, when?, why?); in the Kyungsang dialect, it drops for
both; and in the Julia dialect, it drops and goes up for both. In American English, the intonation goes up for yes/no,
and drops down for wh questions.

Word Connections
Unlike Japanese or Chinese, word connections are common in Korean. The seven final consonants (m, n, ng, l, p, t,
k) slide over when the following word begins with a vowel. Although a t between two vowels in American English
should be voiced (latter/ladder sound the same) a frequent mistake Korean speakers make, however, is to also
voice k or p between two vowels, so back up, check up, and weekend are mispronounced as bagup, chegup, and
weegend; and cap is sounds like cab is. Another liaison problem occurs with a plosive consonant (p/b, t/d, k/g) just
before a nasal (m, n, ng)—Koreans often nasalize the final consonant, so that pick me up and pop music sound like
ping me up and pom music.

Pronunciation
l/r At the beginning of a word or in a consonant cluster, l and r are confused, with both being

f

pronounced like the American d, which can be written with the letter t (glass or grass sound like
either gurasu or gudasu, and light or right sound like raitu or daitu). The final r is usually dropped
(car/kaa).
The English f does not exist in Korean, so people tend to substitute a p. This leads to words such as
difficult sounding like typical to the American ear. When a Korean speaker says a word from the F
column, it's likely to be heard by Americans as being from the P column.

F

difficult
calf
left
often
stuff
enough

typical
cap
leapt
open
stop
and up

P

F

coffee
deaf
cough
fat
after
friend

P

copy
tape
cop
pet
apter
planned

F

half and
Steph
laugh
informant
fossil
free

P

happen
step
lap
important
possible
pre~

æ The exact œ sound doesn't exist in Korean; it's close to ε, so bat sounds like bet. You need to raise
the back of your tongue and drop your jaw to produce this sound. Work on Chapter 3, which drills
this distinctively American vowel.

ä

The ä sound is misplaced. You have the ä sound when you laugh hahaha

, but when you see

Стр. 172 из 185

an o, you want to say [o], as in hohoho
having trouble with the word hot, say ha
191

o

, so John sounds like Joan instead of Jähn. If you're
in Korean, and then add a very slight t.

You may pronounce the letter o as ä or ə when it really should be an o, as in only, most, both. Make
sure that the American o sounds like ou: ounly, moust, bouth. This holds true for the diphthongs as
well — oi sounds like o-u-ee.

toun tone
nout
note
houm
home
ounli only
coul
coal
jouk
joke
The
schwa
is
typically
overpronounced,
based
on
spelling.
Concentrate on smoothing out and
ə
reducing the valleys and ignore spelling!

ü Distinguishing tense and lax vowels is difficult, and you'll have to forget spelling for u and ü. They
both can be spelled with oo or ou, but the lax vowel ü should sound much closer to i or uh. If you
say book with a tense vowel, it'll sound like booque. It should be much closer to bick or buck.

i

Similarly, you need to distinguish between e and i, as in beat and bit, as on page 123. Tone down the
middle i in multisyllabic words, as on page 125, otherwise, beautiful [byoo•d'•fl] will sound like
[byoo-tee-fool]. Most likely, you overpronounce the lax vowel z to eee, so sit is overpronounced to
seat. Reduce the soft i to a schwa; sit should sound like s 't. In most Korean dictionaries, the
distinction between i and ē is not made. Practice the four sounds — bit, beat, bid, bead —
remembering that tense vowels indicate that you tense your lips or tongue, while lax vowels mean
that your lips and tongue are relaxed and the sound is produced in your throat. Unvoiced final
consonants (t, s, k, p, ch, f) mean that the vowel is short and sharp; voiced final consonants (d, z, g,
b, j, v) mean that the vowel is doubled. Work on Bit or Beat? Bid or Bead? in Chapter 8.

tense

single
beat

double
bead

lax

bit

bid

The Korean R = The American T
The Korean r is a consonant. This means that it touches at some point in the mouth. Korean speakers usually trill
their rs (tapping the ridge behind the top teeth), which makes it sound like a d to the American ear. The tongue
should be curled back, and the r produced deep in the throat—not touching the top of the mouth. The Korean
pronunciation of r is usually just an ä at the end of a word (car sounds like caaah) or a flap in the beginning or
middle (area sounds like eddy-ah).
Betty bought a bit of
I need a lot of time.
I caught a cold.
my motto

Sam sees Bill.
She wants one.
Betty likes English.
They play with them.
Children play with toys.
Bob and I call you and Bill.
You and Bill read the news.
It tells one.
Bernard works in a restaurant.
He works in one.

11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

He sees him.
Mary wants a car.
She likes it.
They eat some.
Len and Joe eat some pizza.
We call you.
You read it.
The news tells a story.
Mark lived in France.
He lived there.

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Exercise 1-15: Application of Stress
Hello, my name is_________. I'm taking American Accent Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable
as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all
of the time. I use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to
understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think?
Do I?

The White House
a white house
a darkroom
a dark room
Fifth Avenue
Main Street
a main street
a hot dog
a hot dog
a baby blanket
a baby's blanket
a baby bird
a blackbird
a black bird
a greenhouse
a green house
a green thumb
a parking ticket
a one-way ticket
an unpaid ticket

convenience store
convenient store
to pick up
a pickup truck
six years old
a six-year-old
six and a half
a sugar bowl
a wooden bowl
a large bowl
a mixing bowl
a top hat
a nice hat
a straw hat
a chairperson
Ph.D.
IBM
MIT
USA
ASAP

a doorknob
a glass door
a locked door
ice cream
I scream.
elementary
a lemon tree
Watergate
the back gate
the final year
a yearbook
United States
New York
Long Beach
Central Park
a raw deal
a deal breaker
the bottom line
a bottom feeder
a new low

He's a nice guy.
He's an American guy from San Francisco.
The cheerleader needs a rubber band to hold her ponytail.
The executive asst. needs a paper clip for the final report.
The law student took an English test in a foreign country.
The policeman saw a red car on the freeway in Los Angeles.
My old dog has long ears and a flea problem.
The new teacher broke his coffee cup on the first day.
His best friend has a broken cup in his other office.

10. Let's play football on the weekend in New York.
11. "Jingle Bells" is a nice song.

12. Where are my new shoes?
13. Where are my tennis shoes?

14. I have a headache from the heat wave in South Carolina.
15. The newlyweds took a long walk in Long Beach.

16. The little dog was sitting on the sidewalk.
17. The famous athlete changed clothes in the locker room.
18. The art exhibit was held in an empty room.
19. There was a class reunion at the high school.
20. The headlines indicated a new policy.

21. We got on line and went to americanaccent dot com.

22. The stock options were listed in the company directory.
23. All the second-graders were out on the playground.

Exercise 1-48: Regular Transitions of Adj. and Verbs
1. You need to insert a paragraph here on this newspaper insert.
2. How can you object to this object?
3. I'd like to present you with this present.

4. Would you care to elaboreit on his elabor't explanation?
5. The manufacturer couldn't recall if there'd been a recall.
6. The religious convert wanted to convert the world.
7. The political rebels wanted to rebel against the world.
8. The mogul wanted to record a new record for his latest artist.
9. If you perfect your intonation, your accent will be perfect.
10. Due to the drought, the fields didn't produce much produce this year.

Стр. 175 из 185

11. Unfortunately, City Hall wouldn't permit them to get a permit.
193

Exercise 1-23: Syllable Count Test
12. Have you heard that your associ't is known to associeit with gangsters?
13. How much do you estimeit that the estim't will be?
14. The facilitator wanted to separeit the general topic into sepr't categories.

I'd like to have it at eight, if at all possible. [äi•dläik•tə•hæ•vi•də•dεit•i•fə•däll•pä•sə•bəl]
I'm afraid it's back-ordered. [äi•m'•frei•dits•bæ•kor•drd]
Let's go over it again. [lets•go•wou•vr•ri•də•gεn]
Try to put it off for another hour. [träi•də•pwü•di•däff• fr•rə•nə•thr•ræ•wr]
Talk it over with the other operator. [tä•ki•dou•vr•with•thee•yə•thr•rä•pr•räy•dr]
The accounts have all been updated. [thee•yə•kæon•tsə•väll•bi•nəp•dεi•dəd]
Send them a fax about the problem. [sen•də•mə•fæk•sə•bæo(t)•thə•prä•bləm]
Don't even think about it! [dou•nee•vən•thing•kə•bæo•dit]
We hope he'll OK it. [we•hou•pi•lou•kεi•yit]
He'll really put you on the spot if you make a mistake. [hill•ri•lee•pwü•choo•wän•thə•spä•di•ŕiu•mεi•kə•mis•tεik]

Exercise 1-60: Tag Endings
1. isn't he
2. can't he
3. does she
4. didn't they
5. do you
6. is it
7. aren't I

8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

will you
doesn't he
don't we
haven't we
didn't we
didn't we
hadn't we

15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.

hadn't we
wouldn't we
hasn't it
could you
won't you
shouldn't he
shouldn't he

Exercise 2-12: Finding Liaisons and Glides
Hello, my name is_________. I'm taking American Accent
Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the(y)
American intonation pattern pretty(y)easily, although the(y)only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I
(y) use the(y) up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I(y)used to. I've been paying attention
to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to(w) a lot of Americans lately, and they
tell me that I'm easier to(w)understand. Anyway, I could go(w) on and on, but the(y) important thing is to
listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do(w) I?

Exercise 4-12: Finding American T Sounds
Hello, my name is_________. I'm taking American Accen(t)
Training. There's a lo(t) to learn, bud I hope to make

id as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the
American intonation paddern priddy easily, although the only way də geddidis də practice all of the time. I

Стр. 177 из 185

use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I use(t)to. I've been paying attention to
pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a läddəv Americans la(t)ely, and they tell
me the dime easier də understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, bu(t) the impor(t)n(t) thing is də lissen well
and sound good. Well, wha(d) do you think? Do I?
194

I'd like to have it at eight, if at all possible.
[äi•dläik•tə•hæ•vi•də•dεit•i•fə•däll•pä•sə•bəl]
I'm afraid it's back-ordered.
[äi•m' •frei•dits•bæ•kor•drd]
Let's go over it again.
[lets•go•wou•vr•ri•də•gεn]
Try to put it off for another hour.
[träi•də•pwü•di•däff• fr•rə•nə•thr•ræ•wr]
Talk it over with the other operator.
[tä•ki•dou•vr•with•thee•yə•thr•rä•pr•räy•dr]
The accounts have all been updated.
[thee•yə•kæon•tsə•väll•bi•nəp•dεi•dəd]
Send them a fax about the problem.
[sen•də•mə•fæk•sə•bæo(t)•thə•prä•bləm]
Don't even think about it!
[dou•nee•vən•thing•kə•bæo•dit]
We hope he'll OK it.
[we•hou•pi•lou•kεi•yit]
He'll really put you on the spot if you
make a mistake.
[hill•ri•lee•pwü•choo•wän•thə•spä•di•fiu•mεi•kə•mis•tεik]

Exercise 5-6: Finding L Sounds
Hello, my name is_______. I'm taking American Accent
Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the
American intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use
the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that
I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound
good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 6-7: Finding the R Sound
Hello, my name is_______. I'm taking American Accent
Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the
American intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use
the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a stair case. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that
I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound
good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 7-2: Targeting the TH Sound
Hello, my name is______. I'm taking American Accent
Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the
American intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use
the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that
I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound
good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 8-8: Finding Reduced Sounds
Hello, my name is_________. I'm taking American Accent
Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I shüd pick up on the American
intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I ūse the up and
down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used tū. I've been paying attention to pitch, tū. It's like
walking down a staircase. I've been talking tū a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier tū
understand. Anyway, I cüd go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound güd. Well, what
do you think? Dū I?

Exercise 9-3: Finding V Sounds
Hello, my name is_________. I'm taking American Accent
Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as
enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the American intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only
way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I
used to. I've been paying attention to pitch, too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot
of Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the
important thing is to listen well and sound good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 10-5: Finding S and Z Sounds
Hello, my name iz_______. I'm taking American Acsent
Training. There'z a lot to learn, but I hope to make it az enjoyable az possible. I should pick up on the
American intonation pattern pretty eazily, although the only way to get it iz to practise all of the time. I uze
the up and down, or peaks and valleyz, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americanz lately, and they tell me that
I'm eazier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing iz to listen well and sound
good. Well, what do you think? Do I?

Exercise 12-4: Finding [n] and [ng] Sounds
Hello, my name is______. I'm taking American Accent
Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the
American intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use
the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that I'm
easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound good.
Well, what do you think? Do I?

Стр. 179 из 185

Exercise 13-4: Glottal Consonant Practice
Hello, my name is______. I'm taking American Accent
Training. There's a lot to learn, but I hope to make it as enjoyable as possible. I should pick up on the
American intonation pattern pretty easily, although the only way to get it is to practice all of the time. I use
the up and down, or peaks and valleys, intonation more than I used to. I've been paying attention to pitch,
too. It's like walking down a staircase. I've been talking to a lot of Americans lately, and they tell me that
I'm easier to understand. Anyway, I could go on and on, but the important thing is to listen well and sound
good. Well, what do you think? Do I?
195

a dark room
a darkroom
an antique shop
an antique dealer
an antique chair
a new video
the video store
a coffee table
hot coffee
a coffeepot
a chemistry set
a chemical reaction
a sixth sense
six cents
a sixth grader

16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

the sixth grade
long hair
a hairdresser
a haircut
the wrong station
a police station
a radio station
orange juice
a guitar case
an electric guitar
trick photography
a photo-op
a wedding ceremony
a beautiful ceremony
a wedding cake

Review Ex. 1-36: Description and Set Phrase Test
1. The schoolkids took the subway downtown for their field trip on urban living.
2. Our local sheriff had a bumper sticker on his back bumper.
3. The homeowners thought they had to pay property taxes to the federal government.
4. There were small tremblors after the earthquake in San Francisco.
5. The Geology Club went on a camping trip to Mount Hood.
6. The award ceremony at the Hilton Hotel lasted for two hours.
7. Bob Smith took his surfboard out on a stormy day near Diamond Head.
8. The boy scouts pitched their pup tents on the mountaintop in the pouring rain.
9. It's a little late to ask the baby-sitter to stay overnight.
10. The sixth graders were reading comic books and drinking chocolate milk.

Review Ex. 1-48: Adjective and Verb Transitions
1. Would you please alterneit seats with the other altern'ť?
2. They signed a contract in order to contract their services.
3. Who could object to progress?
4. The unidentified flying object progressed slowly across the night sky.
5. We need a written estim't in order to estimeit the payment.

Review Ex. 1-51: Extended Listening Practice
1.
2.

We think he's got to get over it.
we•thing•keez•gä•də•ge•do•vr•rit
Does anyone know how to get a line of
credit?

Стр. 180 из 185

3.

də•ze•nee•wən•no•hæo•də•ge•də•ly•nə•kre•dət
They should try to show them how to use
the Internet.
thay•shüd•try•də•sho•wəm•hæo•də•yuz•thee•
(y)i•nr•net

We're glad the cher homework's done.
Wüjou help me with this?
Do you missher old friends?
Where zhier brother?
They took it.
Mary had a baby.
Louis talked on the phone.

We forgot about it.
She had one.

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Sam called him.
The dogs howled at the moon.
Did you order any?
We noticed her.
The books fell on the floor.

Review Ex. 2-12: Finding Liaisons and Glides
Think the United Auto Workers can beat Caterpillar Inc. in their bitter contract battle? Before placing your bets, talk to Paul
Branan, who can't wait to cross the picket line at Caterpillar's factory in East Peoria. Branan, recently laid off by a rubberparts plant where he earned base pay of $6.30 an hour, lives one block from a heavily picketed gate at the Cat complex. Now
he's applying to replace one of 12,600 workers who have been on strike for the past five months. "Seventeen dollars an hour
and they don't want to work?" asks Branan. "I don't want to take another guy's job, but I'm hurting, too."